R.  CLEMENT  HARRISS 


I    NO Val ! 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


Birds  of  the  West 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  LIVES 

AND  THE   LABORS  OF  OUR 

FEATHERED   FRIENDS 


'BY 

CHARLES  E.  HOLMES 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE   STATE  AUDUBON  SOCIETY 
OF  SOUTH  DAKOTA 


1907 

HAMMOND  &  STEPHENS  CO. 
FREMONT,  NEBRASKA 


& 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 
TO  THOSE  WHO  BEAD  IT. 


M'-. 


PREFACE. 

The  author  of  this  little  volume  is  not  a  scientist,  he  is  only  a 
nature-lover  and  he  would  be  astonished  and  disappointed  if  every- 
one should  agree  with  all  that  he  has  written.  He  has  found  a 
pleasure  in  tramping  about  the  woods  and  the  streams,  in  seeing 
nature  at  first  hand  and  an  almost  equal  pleasure  in  reading  of  what 
others  have  seen  and  loved. 

It  would  be  nice  indeed  to  give  credit  where  credit  is  due  but 
where  should  I  begin  and  where  could  I  end?  A  father  and  mother 
who  taught  me  to  see  things  and  to  love  them,  an  old  half-breed 
Indian  who  in  my  childhood  showed  me  many  a  sacred  spot  of 
earth,  an  old  shoemaker  who  now  in  his  ninetieth  year  and  "livin' 
on  borrowed  time"  still  has  the  heart  of  a  ten-year-old,  unnum- 
bered bevies  of  school  children  who  have  followed  me  "up  hill  and 
down  dale ' '  giving  me  a  thousand  eyes  with  which  to  see,  Audubon 
Wilson,  Nuttall,  Thoreau,  Burroughs,  Seton  and  many  more  may 
claim  a  share  of  whatever  of  worth  there  may  be  within  these 
covers. 

— The  Author. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Many  a  time  I  have  asked  my  friends  the  question  "What  is 
life?"  and  have  received  such  answers  as  "To  be"  and  "To  ex- 
ist", but  it  was  left  for  a  little  black-eyed  and  black-skinned  boy 
in  a  school  where  I  was  speaking,  to  give  to  me  the  answer  that  has 
pleased  me  most.  He  said  "It  is  to  see  things,  Sir"  and  so  it  is 
if  only  we  see  with  our  mind's  eye  as  well  as  with  our  "lamps". 

To  know 

"Of  the  wild  bee's  morning  chase, 

Of  the  wild  flower's  time  and  place, 
Flight  of  fowl,  and  habitude 

Of  the  tenants  of  the  wood ; 
How  the  tortoise  bears  his  shell, 

How  the  woodchuck  digs  his  cell, 
And  the  ground  mole  sinks  his  well ; 

How  the  robin  feeds  her  young, 
How  the  oriole's  nest  is  hung." 

'To  know  these  things  is  to  add  to  the  resources  of  our  lives, 
and  mightily  so,  if  our  knowledge  is  at  first  hand.  To  be  sure, 
most  of  it  has  to  be  served  to  us  and  usually  it  is  creamed  and 
sugared  for  us.  Oftentimes  it  has  to  be  spiced  to  suit  our  jaded 
mental  palates.  It  is  for  that  reason  that  we  should  do  well  to  hark 
back  to  nature. 

Let  us  get  acquainted  with  the  birds.  They  will  take  us  over 
the  earth,  the  sea  and  the  sky.  They  will  reveal  to  us  the  best  of 
nature's  secrets. 

We  shall  learn  something  of  the  skunk  cabbage  when  we  see 
the  dapper  little  yellow-throat  building  her  home  within  it,  choos- 
ing to  endure  its  horrid  odor  for  the  protection  that  it  gives  to  her 
helpless  little  babies. 

We  shall  learn  that  snakes  crawl  out  of  their  skins  when  we 
find  the  crested  flycatcher  working  a  cast-off  skin  into  her  nest  to 
scare  her  enemies  away. 

We  shall  get  a  genuine  pleasure  in  knowing  that  the  little 
bird  we  call  a  petrel  was  named  after  Saint  Peter  because  it  walks 
upon  the  water. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


When  we  are  afield  we  shall  learn  of  the  trees  in  which  the 
birds  spread  their  tiny  couches  and  swing  their  airy  cradles. 

We  shall  find  the  sparrow's  nest  in  a  tangle  of  vetch,  the  deep 
green  eggs  of  the  catbird  in  the  meshes  of  the  wild  grape  and  the 
leaf-colored  lady  chewink  sitting  on  her  nest,  her  bright  red  eye 
snapping  like  a  spark  among  the  leaves  as  though  she  were  about 
to  set  the  forest  afire  rather  than  have  us  intrude  upon  her  soli- 
tude. 

We  shall  see  a  ruby-throated  hummingbird  building  an  imita- 
tion knot  upon  a  tree-limb  and  using  it  as  a  nest  and  we  shall  ad- 
mire the  genius  of  somebody  or  of  something.  Shall  we  not? 

Shall  we  not  wonder  which  is  the  cleverer,  the  cowbird  that 
lays  her  egg  in  the  yellow  warbler's  nest  to  avoid  the  duties  of 
maternity,  or  the  yellow  warbler  that  build's  a  false  bottom  above 
the  cowbird 's  egg  to  avoid  running  an  orphanage?  I  found  such 
a  nest  in  a  wild  gooseberry  bush  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Herman  - 
Lake  county,  S.  D.,  a  few  years  ago  and  it  was  so  deep  that  I  more 
than  half  believe  that  it  was  a  "three-decker",  but  as  there  was 
but  one  egg  buried  within  it,  I  shall  report  it  a  "double-decker". 

The  bugs,  the  bees,  the  moths,  the  butterflies,  the  flowers,  every- 
thing is  to  be  found  where  the  birds  are.  One  should  feel  a  sense 
of  shame  to  admit  that  he  cannot  tell  an  anemone  from  a  bluebell 
nor  a  grosbeak  from  an  oriole,  especially  if  he  is  old  enough  to 
tell  a  dime  from  a  penny  or  stage  money  from  a  bank  note. 

Let  us  not  be  worried  by  the  two  schools  of  nature-lovers. 
One  sees  only  the  leaden  side  and  the  other  only  the  golden  side 
of  the  statue  and  their  lances  never  draw  blood.  Instead  of  trying 
to  find  human  nature  in  the  birds,  let  us  study  man  a  little  to  see 
if  he  has  within  him  something  of  bird  nature.  When  we  see  him  go- 
i.ng  up  a  telephone  pole  by  means  of  "climbers",  we  see  only  a 
cheap  imitation  of  the  method  of  the  woodpeckers  that  carry  their 
spikes  on  the  ends  of  their  tail-feathers  and  when  we  find  an  old 
crow  hiding  tiny  and  shiny  things  among  the  leaves  within  the  hol- 
low of  an  old  tree-stump  and  visiting  his  treasury  every  little  while 
to  look  over  his  wealth,  can  we  not  recall  many  a  miserly  old  human 
crow  that  is  doing  the  same  thing? 

If  we  have  never  learned  a  lesson  in  politeness  from  the  cedar 
waxwing  it  is  our  own  fault,  for  though  there  were  a  thousand  of 
them  in  a  single  tree-top,  he  would  never  jostle  his  branch-mate, 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


not  for  a  whole  cedar  swamp,  and  he  would  hardly  think  of  eat- 
ing as  much  as  a  newly  found  worm  until  he  had  offered  it  "to 
the  nearest  lady. 

I  wonder  if  the  brown  thrasher  did  not  teach  us  how  to  sing, 
the  ovenbird  how  to  teach,  the  vireo  how  to  preach,  the  goldfinch 
how  to  bathe  and  the  turtle  dove  how  to  love?  Do  you  suppose 
that  the  wren  taught  the  women  how  to  scold,  that  the  blue  jay 
taught  the  men  how  to  swear  and  that  the  English  sparrow  taught 
them  to  hang  around  down  town? 

Now  let  us  discard  our  conceit  and  let  us  give  a  better  character 
to  the  lower  animals.  Let  us  stop  calling  our  faithful  dog  a  pup 
and  a  cur  and  let  us  be  fair  to  the  birds.  The  much  abused  lark 
always  stays  at  home  nights  and  though  the  skylark  is  a  high-flier, 
the  poet  says  that  he  *  *  sings  at  Heaven 's  gate ' '.  Why,  if  a  man  were 
a  "regular  nighthawk",  he  would  retire  soon  after  dark,  for  the 
nighthawk  never  flies  at  night.  The  human  "jay"  is  quite  differ- 
ent from  the  bird  of  that  name  for  the  little  fellow  is  a  swell  dresser 
and  very,  very  wise.  The  stork,  poor  fellow !  He  has  some  awful  re- 
sponsibilities thrust  upon  him. 

If  a  man  were  not  so  often  as  crazy  as  a  loon,  if  he  were  half 
as  wise  as  an  owl,  if  he  only  had  an  eye  like  an  eagle's,  were  less 
gullible  and  less  of  a  cuckoo,  he  would  not  cherish  prejudices  that 
lead  him  to  kill  any  of  our  birds,  for  it  is  a  very  rare  bird  that  has 
a  ledger  balance  in  red  ink.  He  would  not  repeat  the  hue  and  cry 
against  every  bird  that  eats  anything  of  commercial  value.  Of 
course  some  of  the  birds  are  sinners  some  of  the  time,  but  "let 
him  among  you  that  is  without  sin,  cast  the  first  stone". 

Just  think  of  it!  In  order  to  get  a  law  upon  our  statute 
books  to  protect  our  song  birds,  it  has  often  been  necessary  to  per- 
mit the  killing  of  blackbirds.  Why  ?  Because  the  farmer  begrudges 
the  little  corn  he  eats.  If  he  were  to  open  his  eyes  and  open  also 
a  blackbird's  little  "tummy",  he  would  find  it  full  of  cutworms 
instead  of  corn.  Of  course  he  eats  a  little  corn  now  and  then,  very 
little,  but  he  buys  it  and  he  pays  for  it.  When  he  follows  the 
farmer's  plow  from  morning  till  night,  what  do  you  suppose  he 
is  doing? 

Gardeners,  who  do  not  know,  shoot  the  rose-breasted  gros- 
beak whose  choice  of  food  is  the  potato  bug.  A  pint  of  them  is 
short  rations  for  the  little  fellow.  Besides,  he  is  handsome,  a  dear 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


little  husband,  and  he  sings  like  a  concert  tenor.  Nurserymen  re- 
joice when  they  hear  the  voice  of  the  cuckoo  echoing  from  some  hid- 
den corner  of  their  orchard,  for  they  know  that  the  cankerworms 
are  at  their  last  banquet. 

We  accuse  the  mosquito  of  carrying  fever  germs  and  no  doubt 
it  is  guilty.  Think  how  many  human  lives  must  be  saved  by  the 
nighthawks,  chimneyswifts  and  the  swallows,  yet  gunners,  I  beg 
pardon,  "sportsmen",  practice  on  them  because  they  are  swift  of 
flight.  The  kingbird  is  charged  with  eating  honey-bees  but  he  eats 
only  the  drones  except  when  he  guesses  wrong.  Do  you  think  he 
is  any  more  anxious  to  swallow  a  bee  with,  a  stinger  than  you  are? 
Still  people  must  have  their  pleasure  and  if  the  little  birds  must 
be  shot,  shoot  the  English  sparrows  for  if  there  are  Mormons  in  the 
bird-world,  they  are  guilty,  and  if  feather  emblems  must  adorn 
your  hats,  use  the  goose-quill,  for  honestly  "a  bird  in  a  bush  is 
worth  two  on  a  hat". 

When  we  begin  to  appreciate  the  worth  of  things  rather  than 
their  values,  we  begin  to  live.  Then  a  frog  means  more  than  a 
pair  of  edible  legs,  and  I  have  seen  the  very  human  little  fellows 
put  their  hands  over  their  faces  to  ward  off  the  blows  that  were 
to  send  them  to  the  market.  Is  not  a  quail  on  its  nest  better  than 
a  quail  on  toast?  Does  it  not  bear  the  same  relation  to  birds  that 
the  trout  does  to  fishes,  just  a  little  dearer  than  most  of  the  others  ? 
Neither  was  made  to  lie  in  the  market  and  if  they  must  be  taken 
let  it  be  where  the  feathered  choir  is  chanting  a  requiem  and  the 
heather  bells  are  tolling. 


10  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 


ROLL  OF  HONOR. 


THE  BIRDS. 

For  service  in  the  cause  of  humanity ;  for  making  the  fields  to 
flash  with  color,  the  lakes  to  laugh  with  music  and  for  making  the 
trees  the  very  "peaks  of  song",  for  teaching  the  courage  for  pio- 
neering, the  joy  of  honest  toil,  the  virtue  of  happy  mating,  the 
spirit  of  devoted  parentage  and  the  satisfaction  in  an  "ever  so 
humble"  home;  for  singing  with  their  work  and  revealing  to  us 
the  life  in  nature  that ' '  lifts  us  to  the  skies ' '. 

THE  ROBINS. 

For  labor  upon  our  lawns;  for  stirring  childhood's  fancies 
and  awakening  in  old  hearts  the  illusions  of  their  childhood. 

THE  LARKS. 

For  tireless  hours  of  toil  upon  our  farms,  clearing  them  of  in- 
sects and  the  seeds  of  noxious  weeds;  for  singing  in  every  field 
and  from  every  fence-post ;  for  making  morning  the  beginning  of  a 
day  and  evening  the  promise  of  another. 

THE  BLUEBIRDS. 

For  picking  up  the  berries  of  the  ivy  and  the  brier ;  for  clear- 
ing our  gardens  of  grubs,  our  waysides  of  pests  upon  the  wing 
and  for  giving  a  song  to  the  early  winds  to  tell  us  that  we  may  re- 
joice at  the  bursting  of  the  buds. 

THE  CUCKOOS. 

For  stripping  our  trees  of  caterpillars,  our  gardens  of  spiders, 
our  fields  of  beetles  and  for  minding  their  own  business. 

THE  HAWKS. 

For  their  restless  hunting  of  rodents  and  reptiles  and  for  hav- 
ing eyes  that  see  in  a  half -blind  world. 

THE  KILLDEERS. 

For  their  fight  against  the  boll-weevil  and  the  Rocky  Mountain 
locust  and  for  the  love  of  their  little  fuzzy  babies. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  11 

THE  WOODPECKERS. 

For  destroying  ants,  moths,  beetles  and  weed-seeds;  for  their 
tremulous  tattoos  and  awakening  calls  of  springtime. 

THE  KINGFISHERS. 

For  lessening  the  swarms  of  beetles,  crickets  and  grasshoppers 
and  reminding  us  that  ours  are  " halcyon"  days,  if  we  but  make 
them  so. 

THE  GROSBEAKS. 

For  destroying  potato-bugs  and  caterpillars;  for  one  of  the 
sweetest  sounds  in  nature  that  makes  us  glad  to  stop  in  our  hurry 
that  we  may  look  and  listen. 

THE  SWALLOWS. 

For  killing  the  germ-bearing  mosquitoes;  for  suffering  saved 
to  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  for  their  ' '  cheerful  twittering  from  the 
straw-built  shed". 

THE  NATIVE  SPARROWS. 

For  using  thousands  of  tons  of  weed-seed  that  will  never  choke 
the  grain  nor  the  flowers;  for  their  infinite  presence  and  their  un- 
numbered songs. 

THE  UNKNOWN  LIVING. 

For  working  without  reward  and  singing  without  applause. 

THE  UNKNOWN  DEAD. 

That  have  fallen  on  broken  wing  during  the  wild  nights ;  that 
by  unhappy  flight  have  been  the  prey  of  natural  enemies  and  men. 


12  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


THE  FOOD  OF  BIRDS. 


The  problem  of  bread- winning  ?  It  is  the  same  mighty  problem 
for  bird,  beast,  fish,  or  man.  It  prescribes  to  each  of  them  where  he 
shall  make  his  home;  whether  or  not  he  shall  migrate,  and  if  he 
does,  it  names  for  him  the  very  time  and  place  of  his  migration. 

With  birds,  it  largely  determines  the  size  and  shape  of  their 
bills,  the  shape  and  character  of  their  feet,  the  length  of  their 
wings,  the  shape  of  their  tails,  the  color  of  their  plumage  and  the 
number  of  their  eggs. 

There  is  a  little  bird  known  as  the  red  cross-bill,  and  a  Ger- 
man fable  says  that  the  little  fellow  twisted  its  bill  by  trying  to  pull 
the  nails  from  the  Savior 's  cross,  and  that  in  doing  so,  its  breast  was 
reddened  by  the  Savior's  blood.  Science,  that  so  often  spoils  a 
pretty  story,  says  that  the  crossing  of  its  bill  has  resulted  from 
its  fondness  for  the  seeds  of  the  pine  cone.  I  remember  the  first 
one  that  I  ever  saw.  I  was  so  sorry  for  him  because  he  had  twisted 
his  little  bill. 

Now,  the  butcher  needs  different  tools  from  those  of  the  garden- 
er, so  it  is  natural  enough  that  the  butcherbird,  the  owl,  the  hawk 
and  the  eagle  that  slaughter  what  they  eat,  should  have  beaks  that 
are  sharp  and  curve  downwards,  so  that  they  can  cut  and  tear 
steaks  out  of  their  slaughtered  victims.  The  avocet  and  the  wood- 
cock are  so  fond  of  worms  that  nature  has  given  them  very  long 
beaks  so  that  they  can  drill  into  the  muddy  earth  where  the  worms 
are  crawling.  The  bill  of  the  avocet  turns  upward  and  many  claim 
that  the  woodcock  can  turn  his  upward  too,  so  that  he  can  make 
a  regular  hook  of  it  and  more  easily  pull  forth  the  worms. 

Kingfishers,  fish  hawks  and  mergansers  catch  fishes.  The  king- 
fisher has  a  strong  beak  and  a  very,  very  sharp  one  so  that  it  easily 
sinks  it  into  its  victim.  The  fish  hawk,  when  it  dives  into  the  water 
for  its  fish,  trusts  to  its  specially  favored  feet  to  hold  it,  while  the 
merganser  has  a  bill  that  is  like  a  set  of  saw-blades  and  a  fish  has  lit- 
tle chance  of  escape  from  its  serrate  jaws. 

You  have  noticed  the  sifting  machines  on  the  side  of  the  beak 
of  a  spoonbill  duck.  The  duck  will  gobble  a  mouthful  of  minnows 
or  snails  or  a  combination  of  mud  and  food  but  he  has  little  trou- 
ble in  sifting  the  objectionable  matter  out. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  13 

The  woodpecker  being  more  or  less  a  carpenter,  is  provided  with 
a  well  tempered,  well  sharpened,  hammer-like  bill  that  enables  him 
to  drill  holes  of  almost  any  size  either  for  the  securing  of  food  or 
the  construction  of  a  home. 

No  doubt  the  canna,  the  nasturtium  and  the  trumpet-creeper 
are  as  anxious  to  have  the  hummingbird  work  for  them  and  fertil- 
ize them  as  the  hummingbird  is  to  have  them  run  a  nectary  for 
him,  so  while  the  flowers  have  developed  a  deep  cup  to  shut  the 
moths  out,  they  have  made  it  necessary  for  the  hummingbird  to 
grow  a  long  bill  in  order  to  reach  the  nectar.  It  is  a  pretty  part- 
nership they  have  entered  into,  the  little  boycotters. 

The  swallows  and  flycatchers  have  opened  their  mouths  so 
wide  and  so  much  and  so  long  to  let  the  flies  in,  that  their  mouths 
reach  from  ear  to  ear. 

The  food  of  birds  has  a  direct  bearing  upon  the  size  and  shape 
of  their  feet.  I  called  attention  to  the  needle-pointed  talons  of  the  fish 
hawk  that  enable  him  to  grasp  with  certainty  the  fish  beneath  the 
water  and  easily  handle  him  within  his  native  element.  What  a 
feat  it  is!  Here  is  the  problem  upon  which  you  may  ponder.  A 
fish  hawk  is  flying  in  a  circle  at  the  rate  of  twenty  miles  an  hour 
while  the  wind  is  blowing  thirty  miles  an  hour.  He  is  four  hundred 
feet  above  the  surface  of  a  river  that  is  flowing  ten  miles  an  hour. 
Six  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  river  a  fish  is  swimming  with  the 
stream  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  miles  an  hour.  On  account  of  the 
refraction  of  light  the  fish  is  two  feet  away  from  where  he  seems 
to  be  and  it  is  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Don't  you  think  you 
would  rather  trust  a  fish  hawk's  instinct  than  your  own  math- 
ematics 1  That  is  just  the  problem  that  a  baby  fish  hawk  solves  as 
unerringly  as  its  father  does. 

A  woodpecker  must  certainly  have  sharp  and  strong  toes  to 
enable  him  to  cling  so  easily  to  the  sides  of  barkless  trees. 

It  is  a  rule  of  nature  to  discard  the  useless  things.  If  you  will 
notice  a  cow's  foot  you  will  see  that  two  of  its  hind  toes  no  longer 
touch  the  ground  and  are  little  better  than  warts.  The  horse  has 
only  one  toe  left  upon  each  foot.  If  the  nighthawk,  the  swifts  and 
the  swallows  don't  use  their  feet  more,  they  will  soon  have  feet 
as  small  in  proportion  as  those  of  a  Chinese  princess. 

Swimming  birds  are  web-footed  for  they  must  often  pursue 
their  prey  even  under  water.  The  mergansers  can  paddle  fast 


14  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

enough  under  water  to  catch,  fishes.  The  petrel  will  spread  his 
wings  and  with  his  webbed  feet  will  not  only  walk  upon  the  water 
as  Peter  did,  but  he  will  run. 

Wading  birds  have  very  long  legs  and  feet,  well  adapted  to 
tramping  out  any  delicious  morsels  that  are  concealed  in  the  mud 
beneath  the  shallow  water. 

The  albatross  has  a  wing-spread  of  twelve  or  fourteen  feet 
and  I  am  sure  that  I  should  want  even  more  than  that  if  I  made 
such  trips  as  he  does  over  the  ocean.  The  swallows  are  on  the  wing 
nearly  all  the  time  and  they  often  have  to  make  very  sudden  turns 
to  catch  passing  flies.  It  is  therefore  reasonable  that  there  should 
be  little  to  them  but  wings,  but  a  quail  or  a  prairie  chicken  that 
makes  only  short  flights  and  does  not  migrate  has  little  need  of 
very  long  wings. 

Some  of  the  birds  make  use  of  their  tails  to  steer  them  either 
in  flight  or  while  swimming  under  the  water  and  all  birds  find 
their  tails  of  considerable  service  in  making  a  landing  upon  a  perch. 

As  to  color  of  plumage  and  its  bearing  upon  food  supply, 
there  is  mostly  indirect  relation,  but  it  is  claimed  for  some  of  the 
water  birds  that  they  have  the  power  of  illuminating  their  under 
plumage  for  the  attraction  of  fishes  and  it  is  well  known  that  birds 
often  take  the  color  of  their  surroundings,  for  they  wish  to  be  in- 
conspicuous both  when  they  are  preying  and  being  preyed  upon. 

You  may  ask,  "What  has  the  question  of  diet  to  do  with  their 
egg-laying?"  Birds  have  quite  a  problem  to  solve  when  the  task 
of  feeding  their  young  is  before  them.  A  young  bird  is  an  awful 
eater.  An  abundant  food  supply  that  is  available  for  a  long  season 
will  mean  to  many  birds  an  extra  family  per  season,  and  to  many 
more  a  larger  family.  You  know  how  quality  and  quantity  of  food 
affect  the  domestic  hen  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  when  times  are 
good  and  living  is  easily  made,  our  human  brothers  more  readily 
assume  the  duties  of  the  Benedicts. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  15 


BIRD-DESTRUCTION. 


The  great  instinct  of  bird  life  as  of  all -life  is  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation.  It  is  therefore  a  matter  of  great  concern  to 
birds  just  how  and  where  to  construct  their  nests  so  that  they  may 
live  with  least  danger  to  themselves  and  rear  their  families  with 
the  greatest  certainty.  The  decrease  in  bird  life  during  the  last 
few  years  has  been  due  mostly  to  shot  guns,  but  there  are  so  many 
sources  of  danger  to  birds  that  some  naturalists  doubt  that  any 
of  them  ''die  a  natural  death"  meaning,  of  course,  a  death  without 
violence.  At  Luverne,  Minnesota,  a  few  years  ago  several  acres 
were  found  covered  with  lapland  longspurs  that  had  met  death  by 
encountering  a  severe  storm  during  their  northern  migration.  Have 
you  not  seen  dozens  of  dead  birds  lying  beneath  a  line  of  telegraph 
wires?  Think  too  of  the  thousands  of  chickens,  grouse  and  quail 
that  are  frozen  or  smothered  during  the  cold  and  snowy  winters, 
and  of  the  havoc  wrought  to  nests  by  fires  and  floods,  by  the  prairie 
wind  and  the  farmer's  plough. 

Let  us  see  what  means  are  used  by  the  birds  for  their  own 
protection.  Against  winds  and  rain  the  oriole  builds  a  swinging 
nest  at  the  extremity  of  a  tree-limb.  The  robin  plasters  its  nest 
with  mud  to  give  it  strength.  'The  grebe  builds  a  nest  that  will 
float  upon  the  water.  The  orchard  oriole  and  the  warblers  fasten 
their  nests  securely  to  the  boughs  of  bushes  and  of  trees.  The  red- 
winged  blackbird  ties  its  nest  to  marsh  reeds  or  the  limbs  of  small 
trees  in  western  tree  claims.  Woodpeckers,  chickadees,  bluebirds, 
phoebes  and  house  wrens  drill  holes  into  trees  or  make  use  of  holes 
drilled  by  other  birds.  The  barn  swallow  and  the  phoebe  often 
build  under  bridges.  Eaves  swallows,  ovenbirds  and  meadow  larks 
generally  roof  their  nests  and  many  birds  go  far  enough  into  the 
forest  to  get  away  from  the  severity  of  the  storms.  Sand  swallows 
dig  into  sand  banks  and  English  sparrows  often  take  posses- 
sion of  their  burrows.  Bob  whites  and  plovers  lay  pointed  eggs 
and  the  wind  cannot  blow  them  very  far  away.  Mourning  doves 
and  nighthawks  seem  not  to  have  learned  how  to  secure  adequate 
protection  from  storms  but  they  have  ways  of  their  own  for  self- 
protection,  especially  against  squirrels,  snakes  and  men,  the  former 
often  feigning  lameness  when  its  nest  is  approached  and  the  latter 
removing  its  eggs  to  a  new  location.  , 


16  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

Many  birds  build  like  the  oriole,  far  out  upon  the  small 
branches  of  trees  or  cover  their  eggs,  as  do  many  of  the  ducks,  with 
feathers  or  dry  grass.  Orchard  orioles  make  their  nests  of  green 
grass  so  that  when  new  they  are  very  difficult  to  find.  Blackbirds, 
phoebes  and  barn  swallows  often  build  above  water,  taking  the  risk 
of  drowning  their  young  rather  than  the  dangers  from  living  ene- 
mies. Many  birds,  especially  females,  grow  to  resemble  in  color 
their  nest  material  or  other  surroundings.  This  is  true  of  the  ehe- 
wink,  the  indigo-bird,  and  most  of  the  sparrows  and  ground-nesters. 
Birds  often  trust  to  the  good  fortune  of  being  undiscovered  but  if 
discovered,  like  Bob  white,  the  cuckoos  and  the  dove  they  feign  lame- 
ness, or  like  the  wrens  and  the  kingfishers  they  scold,  or  like  eagles 
and  hawks,  they  fight.  Flight  is  the  natural  method  of  escape  if 
the  home  is  not  involved,  though  birds  like  the  loon  and  the  grebe 
and  some  of  the  ducks  trust  to  diving  beneath  the  water. 

To  protect  themselves  from  other  birds  is  a  very  difficult  prob- 
lem. Small  birds  that  live  in  cavities  in  trees  or  the  earth  are 
naturally  protected  from  larger  birds  that  are  unable  because  of 
their  size  to  enter  their  small  homes.  In  that  way,  even  the  smaller 
woodpeckers  and  the  sand  swallows  are  protected.  The  most  prac- 
ticed method,  however,  seems  to  be  to  select  places  for  homes  that 
are  rarely  frequented  by  bird  enemies.  Birds  that  come  into  the 
city  are  in  less  danger  from  hawks,  crows,  jays,  shrikes  and  cow- 
birds,  though  they  must  endure  the  annoyance  of  English  spar- 
rows. The  yellow  warbler  often  builds  in  the  prickly  gooseberry 
bush,  the  swift  in  chimneys,  and  the  kingfisher  in  a  hole  in  the 
ground  that  he  permits  to  become  such  a  stench  that  no  self-re- 
specting creature  would  go  near  it.  All  in  all,  it  is  quite  a  prob- 
lem to  build  so  as  to  be  protected  against  so  many  dangers  and  at 
the  same  time  to  be  near  good  building  material  and  a  generous 
food-supply.  Surely  the  little  birds  have  their  troubles  and  are 
entitled  to  our  friendship. 

The  next  generation  will  feel  and  know  that  all  creatures  have 
the  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  if 
they  grant  the  same  to  others.  Do  you  think  that  the  Creator  in- 
tended that  there  should  be  a  penalty  for  beauty? 

Beauty  is  almost  a  synonym  of  "good"  and  of  "true".  Yet 
birds  are  slaughtered  because  they  are  beautiful.  Even  a  throne 
gainetl  by  wafting  through  slaughter  no  longer  calls  for  the  respect 


AMERICAN  GOLDFINCH 

UPPER  FIGURE,  MALE;  LOWER  FIGURE,  FEMALE 
(One- half  natural  size) 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  17 

of  mankind  and  personal  adornment  that  calls  for  innocent  life 
will  be  despised  by  the  daughters  of  those  who  think  to  steal  re- 
flected beauty  from  a  pretty  bird.  It  is  "Mothers  causing  the 
death  of  mothers "  and  for  the  sake  of  vanity.  Public  sentiment 
is  fast  shaping  itself  and  the  woman  who  jauntily  tosses  her  plumes 
to  the  breezes  with  the  vain  thought  that  she  has  a  pretty  face,  will 
soon  learn  that  enlightened  sentiment  is  thinking  about  her  thought- 
lessness or  her  heartlessness.  Shoot  birds  if  you  must  but  shoot 
them  with  a  camera  or  level  a  pair  of  opera  glasses  at  them.  You 
will  not  be  violating  either  a  written  or  an  unwritten  law  by  doing 
so.  You  will  find  the  pursuit  as  fascinating  and  the  results  more 
lasting.  You  will  find  therein  an  appeal  to  your  better  nature.  The 
days  when  wild  life  was  valued  only  for  food  and  raiment  have 
passed  with  barbarous  races. 

You  should  never  shoot  even  the  game  birds  in  the  springtime. 
Why?  Because  your  only  justification  can  be  that  they  are  needed 
for  food,  which  is  rarely  true.  As  a  rule  spring  shooting  is  only 
to  satisfy  a  desire  to  kill  which  masquerades  under  the  name  of 
sport.  As  for  song  birds  they  should  never  be  killed. 

If  any  birds  are  needed  for  food,  it  is  well  to  know  that  those 
that  migrate  are  thin  and  tough  from  long  flight,  and  ducks  espe- 
cially, having  had  more  of  a  fish  diet  than  in  the  fall  when  grains 
are  available,  offer  a  flesh  that  is  at  its  worst. 

All  birds  are  more  trustful  and  less  fearful  when  love  warms 
their  little  hearts  and  for  them  the  springtime  is  the  time  of  court- 
ship and  marriage.  The  loss  of  a  single  bird  may  mean  one  less  nest- 
ful  of  babies  and  there  are  enough  natural  enemies  of  the  mating 
and  nesting  bird  without  the  unnatural  enmity  of  man. 

It  is  estimated  that  during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  the  num- 
ber of  birds  has  decreased  one-half.  That  would  not  be  so  bad  if 
if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  the  most  beautiful  birds  are  the  ones 
that  have  decreased  most  rapidly.  The  scarlet  tanager,  the  passen- 
ger pigeon,  the  bluebird  and  the  egret  are  fast  going  while  the 
most  undesirable  birds  such  as  the  English  sparrow  are  fast  com- 
ing. 


18  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


BIRD  SPORTS. 


Nearly  all  forms  of  animal  life  have  a  way  of  playing.  You 
have  seen  horses  have  jolly  good  times  just  for  fun.  Nothing  is 
prettier  than  to  watch  a  family  of  foxes  at  play  unless  it  is  to  watch 
the  antics  of  puppies  and  kittens.  Do  you  think  that  such  cheerful 
livers  as  birds  have  no  games  to  play  at? 

I  have  seen  sandhill  cranes  do  a  mighty  pretty  cake  walk  and 
some  very  fancy  jigs;  and  a  number  of  tiny  sandpipers  did  what 
I  should  call  a  cotillion,  if  it  were  done  in  a  ballroom  by  common 
folks. 

You  have  no  doubt  seen  robins  play  tag  upon  a  lawn  and  what 
sport  a  game  of  tag  would  have  been  to  us  in  our  boyhood  days  if 
we  had  only  had  wings.  Did  you  ever  see  a  cat  play  with  a  mouse  ? 
Terns  (often  improperly  called  gulls)  play  catch  with  fishes.  A 
tern  will  carry  a  fish  high  into  the  air  only  to  drop  it,  when  sud- 
denly another  tern  will  catch  it  on  the  fly  and  go  upward  with  it 
only  to  drop  it  to  a  third  tern  and  so  on  until  they  are  weary  of  the 
game. 

When  a  gull  carries  a  clam  to  a  great  height  and  drops  it,  it 
does  so  in  order  to  crack  the  clam-shell,  for,  if  the  shell  is  not  bro- 
ken, the  gull  will  carry  it  to  a  greater  height  the  second  time  and 
the  third  time  to  a  still  greater  height.  Pretty  fair  intelligence? 

I  shall  always  think  that  the  redstart  turns  its  many  somer- 
saults just  for  the  fun  of  it  and  I  have  seen  one  turn  every  min- 
ute for  half  an  hour  apparently  for  the  principal  reason  that  she 
had  a  spectator. 

Do  you  suppose  that  bitterns  have  a  sense  of  humor  ?  I  fear 
not,  yet  they  surely  would  inspire  it  within  you  if  you  should  see 
one  standing  for  hours  on  one  foot  trying  to  fool  the  frogs  into 
the  belief  that  he  is  a  part  of  the  scenery.  He's  an  unlucky  frog 
who  happens  to  come  within  the  bittern's  sphere  of  influence. 

The  ruffed  grouse  drums  upon  a  log  with  his  breast  and  wings 
and  the  woodpeckers  drum  with  their  bills  upon  hollow  tree  stumps. 
It  is  no  doubt  a  means  they  employ  to  win  their  brides,  but  it  is 
sport  just  the  same.  Young  men  and  old  men  get  playful  too  when 
they  are  sparking. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 


The  high  dive  of  the  nighthawk,  the  tossing  of  a  fish  into 
the  air  and  catching  it  before  swallowing  it,  as  the  cormorant 
does,  the  strutting  and  puffing  and  blowing  of  prairie  chickens, 
the  soaring  of  larks,  hawks  and  eagles  are  only  useful  means  of 
bird  enjoyment.  Speaking  of  concerts,  ask  the  blackbirds. 


20  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


BIRD  INTELLIGENCE. 


It  is  not  probable  that  female  birds  know  that  they  resemble 
their  environment  in  color  nor  that  they  gather  materials  for  their 
nests  that  will  be  inconspicuous.  Naturally  grass  birds  use  grass 
because  it  is  most  available.  White  strings  and  bright  objects  so 
often  woven  into  nests  are  surely  not  put  into  them  for  the  pur- 
pose of  concealing  them  and  as  to  the  former  problem  we  may 
say  that  it  is  part  of  Nature's  plan  and  let  it  go  at  that.  We  do 
not  know  all  of  Nature's  secrets  but  we  may  have  the  pleasure  of 
guessing — half  of  life  is  used  in  that  way. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  convey  the  impression  in  these  arti- 
cles that  birds  do  much,  if  any,  reasoning,  or  that  they  are  so  won- 
derful in  themselves,  but  I  do  wish  to  show  that  they  are  beautiful 
and  wonderful  as  a  part  of  the  great,  natural  plan  and  I  should 
rather  be  guilty  of  romancing  than  to  rob  them  of  the  least  bit  that  is 
theirs.  It  will  be  too  bad  if  the  crusade  against  the  ' '  Nature  fakers ' ' 
goes  to  the  extent  of  robbing  childhood  of  the  fairies  and  of  Santa 
Glaus.  Our  keenest  joys  in  life  could  be  "shot  to  pieces"  by  the 
arrows  of  reason,  and  if  we  should  live  neither  in  the  past  nor  in 
the  present,  the  game  of  life  would  hardly  be  worth  the  candle,  so  if 
these  articles  are  at  any  point  more  imaginative  than  real,  no 
apology  need  be  applied  for.  The  man  who  is  not  fooled  most  of 
the  time  is  rare  and  the  one  who  thinks  he  is  rarely  fooled  is  often 
the  one  who  is  fooled  most  of  the  time,  and  if  while  we  are  being 
fooled  we  are  having  our  sympathies  deepened,  our  loves  strength- 
ened and  our  lives  brightened,  there  need  be  little  worry  as  to 
whether  the  fish-hawk  after  a  dive  into  the  water  on  a  hot  day, 
shakes  itself  over  its  nestful  of  eggs  to  cool  them  off  or  just  happens 
to  do  so. 

The  writings  of  the  anti-* ' Nature  fakers",  who  would  be  so 
strictly  honest  that  they  would  not  attribute  anything  like  human 
reason  to  the  birds,  are  almost  brimming  over  with  unconscious  ad- 
mission of  what  they  so  severely  condemn.  After  the  pretty  story 
is  told  it  is  unhappy  that  the  secret  is  let  out  that  it  probably  isn't 
true.  When  we  are  told  of  two  pretty  singers  having  a  singing  con- 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


21 


test  or  two  pretty  dressers  having  a  strutting  contest  to  win  the 
wing  of  a  female  in  marriage,  it  is  too  bad  to  tell  us  that  they  prob- 
ably did  not  know  what  they  were  doing. 

That  there  is  Nature  faking  goes  without  saying,  but  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  reaction  against  idealization  of  the  non-human 
will  not  cut  the  heart  out  of  Nature. 


22  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


CONSTITUTION  OF   THE   AUDUBON  BIRD   CLUB  OF 

SCHOOL. 

Article  I. — Name. 

The  name  of  this  organization  shall  be  The  Audubon  Bird  Club 
of School. 

Article  II. — Objects. 

The  objects  for  which  this  club  is  formed  are:  (1)  to  study 
the  birds;  (2)  to  protect  the  birds;  (3)  to  attract  birds  around 
our  school,  and  about  our  homes ;  (4)  to  observe  with  suitable  cere- 
monies some  day  in  spring  to  be  known  as  Bird  Day;  (5)  to  ac- 
quire a  library  of  nature  books  and  nature  literature;  (6)  to  plant 
trees  and  shrubs  in  school  grounds  and  along  highways. 

Article  HI. — Members. 

All  pupils  of  this  school  are  eligible  for  membership.  All  per- 
sons who  attend  the  meeting  for  organization  shall  be  considered 
charter  members.  Thereafter  members  shall  be  duly  proposed  and 
elected.  The  teachers  of  the  school  shall  be  honorary  members. 


Article  IV. — j 

Meetings  shall  be  held  at  least  twice  each  month,  or  on  the 
call  of  the  president  for  a  suitable  reason. 

Article  V.—Dues. 

The  dues  shall  not  exceed  two  cents  per  month. 
Article  VI. — Officers. 

The  officers  of  this  club  shall  be  a  president,  a  vice  president, 
a  secretary  and  a  treasurer.  The  term  of  office  shall  not  exceed 
three  months.  The  duties  of  the  officers  shall  be  as  follows :  Presi- 
dent, to  preside  at  all  meetings;  vice  president,  to  preside  in  the 
absence  of  the  president;  secretary,  to  record  the  proceedings  of 
all  meetings  and  to  conduct  the  necessary  correspondence  of  the 
club;  treasurer,  to  collect  all  dues  and  pay  all  bills  authorized  by 
the  club. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  23 

Article  VII. — Committees. 

The  committees  of  this  club  shall  be:  Committee  on  feeding 
birds  in  winter;  committee  on  nesting  houses;  committee  on  drink- 
ing and  bathing  fountains;  committee  on  plants  to  attract  birds 
around  our  school  and  homes ;  committee  on  protection  of  birds 
during  the  nesting  season;  committee  on  law  (to  post  warning  no- 
tices and  to  report  violations  of  the  bird  laws  to  the  proper  author- 
ities) ;  committee  on  preparing  a  local  list  of  birds;  committee  on 
a  bird  library  for  the  school.  These  committees  shall  be  appointed 
by  the  president,  who  shall  also  determine  their  size.  The  member 
first  named  shall  be  chairman. 

Article  VIII. — Duties  of  Committees. 

The  duties  of  these  committees  shall  be  to  collect  information 
on  the  topics  suggested  by  the  name  of  the  committee  and  to  re- 
port at  the  meetings,  giving  suggestions  to  the  members  on  the 
best  method  of  procedure.  It  shall  also  be  the  duty  of  the  com- 
mittees to  assist  the  members  in  carrying  on  their  various  lines 
of  work  and  to  learn  the  results  of  the  members'  efforts.  A  re- 
port of  these  results  and  of  the  work  done  by  each  committee  shall 
be  given  at  the  regular  meetings  of  the  club. 

Article  IX. — ^Amendments. 

Any  amendments  to  this  constitution  may  be  adopted  by  a  two- 
thirds  vote  of  the  members  present  at  any  regular  meeting,  notice 
of  such  amendment  having  been  presented  at  the  previous  meet- 
ing. 


Cuckoos. 


Order,  Coccyges. 
Family,   Cuculidae. 


387.  YELLOW-BILLED      CUCKOO.       (Rain    Crow.)      Coccyzus 
americanus.     Eleven  inches  long.     Olive-gray  above.     Ashy  white  be- 
low.    Slim,  graceful  body.     Bill  slightly  curved.     White  spots  the  size 
of  your  finger-nail  on  tail  feathers.     Lower  mandible  yellow.     Nests 
only  a  few  feet  above  ground.     Eggs  pale  blue-green. 

388.  BLACK-BILLED  CUCKOO.      (Rain  Crow.)      Coccyzus  ery- 
throphthalmus.     Eleven  inches  long.      Olive-gray  above.     Ashy  white 
below.  Slim,  graceful  body.     Bill  slightly  curved.     White  spots  on  tips 
of  tail  feathers,  but  not  "finger-nail"  shaped  as  in  the  yellow-billed 
cuckoo.     Bill   entirely  black.     Red  eye-ring.     Nests  only  a  few  feet 
above  ground.     Eggs  pale  blue-green. 

YELLOW-BILLED  CUCKOO. 

"Gulp!  Gulp!  Gulp!  Gulp!  Gulp!"  will  come  to  your  ears 
from  your  garden  sometime.  You  will  wonder  if  a  tree-toad  is 
getting  ambitious  to  sing  a  bird  note  or  if  a  mocking  bird  is  trying 
to  sing  frogtime.  If  you  follow  the  gulping  you  will  very  likely 
see  a  yellow-billed  cuckoo,  perhaps  a  black-billed  one.  When  I  was 
a  little  boy  we  used  to  sing  in  school  a  song  that  started  out  "Softly 
the  cuckoo  is  calling  now".  I  want  to  tell  you  quietly  that  who- 
ever wrote  that  song  never  heard  a  real  cuckoo  but  got  his  bird 
knowledge  from  a  cuckoo  clock. 

Cuckoos  are  usually  very  fond  of  concealment  and  you  will 
very  often  have  a  hard  time  to  get  a  satisfactory  view  of  one.  I 
have  approached  them  while  they  were  sitting  on  their  eggs  think- 
ing that  they  would  be  less  shy  at  that  time,  but  they  actually  slide 
from  their  nests  very  much  as  a  fish  slides  over  a  dam,  and  away 
they  go  into  the  underbrush  as  though  they  were  very,  very  help- 
less. They  are  not  half  as  much  afraid  of  people  out  here  in  the 
west  as  they  are  in  the  east.  Probably  they  see  them  oftener  be- 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  25 

cause  there  are  fewer  trees.  However,  they  are  quite  a  different 
bird  in  other  ways.  They  build  better  nests  because  the  winds 
blow  harder  and  I  believe  they  lay  more  eggs,  for  I  have  never 
found  less  than  four  in  Dakota,  but  in  New  England  I  seldom  have 
seen  more  than  two. 

They  say  that  in  Old  England  they  don't  build  nests  at  all, 
but  lay  in  other  birds'  nests  as  our  cowbird  does.  Sometimes  as 
many  as  seven  eggs  are  found  in  a  single  nest,  but  it  is  possible  that 
some  other  lady  cuckoo  thought  that  it  would  be  all  right  as  long 
as  it  was  all  in  the  family.  Whatever  faults  they  have,  they  have 
one  merit  and  that  is  their  appetite  for  tent  caterpillars.  If  you 
ever  have  a  cuckoo  in  your  orchard  you  ought  to  respectfully  take 
your  hat  off  every  time  that  you  see  him.  Don't  let  anyone  fool 
you  into  the  superstition  that  he  is  a*  bird  of  evil  omen  or  that  he 
is  a  rain  crow  and  runs  the  weather  bureau  or  anything  of  the  kind. 
He  isn't.  He's  after  that  bunch  of  cobwebs  that  is  full  of  worms 
that  you  will  see  up  in  the  top  of  your  apple  tree. 

The  cuckoo  gives  us  one  of  the  marvels  of  birdlif e.  The  young 
ones,  twenty-four  hours  before  leaving  their  nests,  haven 't  a  feather 
on  them  except  long  pinfeathers  that  make  them  look  like  baby 
porcupines,  but  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  they  blossom 
forth  like  a  rose  and  almost  in  the  moment  of  your  talking  they 
take  wing  and  are  gone.  Isn  't  it  a  wonder  ? 


Kingfishers. 


Order,  Coccyges. 
Family,  Alcedinidae. 


390.  BELTED  KINGFISHER.  Ceryle  Alcyon.  Twelve  inches 
long.  Long  crest  on  head.  Bluish-gray  above,  white  below.  White 
spot  in  front  of  eye.  White  collar  and  blue-gray  band  across  the 
breast.  Large  head  with  long,  strong  bill  for  catching  fishes.  Eggs 
white.  Nests  in  a  hole  in  the  ground  near  water. 

BELTED  KINGFISHER. 

This  is  the  famous  "Halcyon"  that  built  a  floating  nest  upon 
the  sea  and  had  the  power  of  making  fair  weather  wherever  the 
nest  floated.  Those  were  "halcyon  days"  according  to  the  fable. 

Really  the  truth  about  its  nest  is  this.  Into  a  hole  in  the  bank 
by  the  side  of  a  stream,  that  looks  as  though  it  had  been  the  home 
of  a  water  rat,  our  halcyon  creeps  and  there  belches  forth  fish 
bones  and  fish  scales  that  were  not  digested.  These  are  gathered 
for  a  nest  that  would  make  you  think  that  he  has  no  sense  of  smell. 
Possibly  with  a  view  to  concealing  his  disgorged  pellets  so  that  they 
will  not  betray  his  whereabouts  to  his  enemies,  he  went  within  and 
finally  made  use  of  them  for  nest  material. 

The  kingfisher  is  pretty  in  the  air  for  he  sails  along  with  even 
flight  and  has  the  air  of  knowing  where  he  is  going  and  of  having 
an  errand  at  the  end  of  his  journey.  He  catches  his  fish  with  his 
strong  beak  and  his  presence  is  an  evidence  that  there  are  fishes 
in  the  stream  nearby.  They  are  not  necessarily  good  ones  nor  large 
ones,  for  all  fishes  look  alike  to  him. 

Speaking  of '  fish-tackling,  the  kingfisher  will  often  tackle  one 
far  too  large  for  him,  but  unlike  the  merganser,  he  will  throw  it  out 
and  try  it  over  and  over  until  it  goes  down.  The  merganser  swal- 
lows his  as  far  as  he  can  and  lets  the  end  of  it  digest  while  his 
mouth  is  stopped  up  for  an  hour  or  so  with  the  body  of  the  un- 
swallowed  fish. 

If  the  kingfisher 's  squawk  may  be  called  a  song  or  even  music, 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


27 


it  would  be  well  for  him  to  wear  the  sign  that  was  put  on  the  church 
organ  in  a  wild  western  town — "Don't  shoot  the  organist!  He's 
doing  the  best  he  can."  If  there  is  any  proper  adjective  to  describe 
— well,  there  is  none. 

Withal  they  are  good  parents,  thoroughly  domestic,  love  their 
homes  as  long  as  there  is  good  fishing  near  them,  mind  their  own 
business  and  usually  have  plenty  of  it. 


Woodpeckers, 


Order,    Pici. 
Family,  Picidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Sharp,  pointed  bills  for  drumming  or  drill- 
ing about  the  trunks  and  limbs  of  trees.  Red  patch  on  head  or  throat 
or  both.  Alight  upon  the  sides  of  tree  trunks  supporting  themselves 
by  their  tails.  They  live  upon  grubs,  worms  and  ants.  The  sapsucker 
occasionally  injures  trees  by  drilling  too  many  holes  into  their  bark. 

412a.  NORTHERN  FLICKER.  (Golden-winged  Woodpecker. 
Wakie-up.  High-hole.  Yellow-hammer.)  Colaptes  auratus  luteus. 
Length  12  inches.  Red  spot  on  head.  Black  crescent  on  throat.  White 
spot  on  back  near  tail.  Brownish  gray  above,  barred  with  black.  Black 
spots  on  breast.  Much  yellow  on  body.  Bill  slightly  curved.  Yellow 
under  wings.  Black  cheek  stripes.  Tail  feathers  sharply  pointed  and 
used  as  a  support.  Nests  in  holies  in  rotten  trees.  Eggs  white.  Dip- 
ping motion  in  flight. 

413.  RED-SHAFTED  FLICKER.  Colaptes  cafer  collaris.  Sim- 
ilar to  northern  flicker  but  has  red  feathers  under  wings  and  tail  and 
red  cheek  stripes. 

406.  RED-HEADED  WOODPECKER.  (Tricolor.)  Melanerpes 
erythrocephalus.  Nine  and  one-half  inches  long.  Head  and  neck  deep 
red.  Plain  black  above.  Belly,  half  of  wings  and  rump  plain  white. 
The  three  colors  are  distinct.  Eggs  white.  Dipping  motion  in  flight. 
A  "striking"  bird  with  an  awful  voice. 

394c.  DOWNY  WOODPECKER.  Dry  abates  pubescens.  About  the 
size  of  the  English  sparrow.  Distinctly  black  and  white  above  in  bars 
or  bands.  White  below.  Red  feathers  on  lower  part  of  head.  A 
friendly  little  fellow  and  always  busy  after  wood-borers. 

393a.  HAIRY  WOODPECKER.  Dryobates  villosus.  About  nine 
inches  long.  Resembles  the  downy  woodpecker  except  in  size.  Outer 
tail  fieathers  are  white.  Almost  entirely  white  belly  and  a  white  verti- 
cal line  down  the  back.  Like  all  woodpeckers  they  build  nearer  the 
ground  in  the  west  than  in  the  east. 

402.  SAPSUCKER.  Sphyrapicus  varius.  Eight  and  one-half 
inches  long.  Body  black,  white  and  yellow  mingled.  Yellow  belly. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  29 

Head  and  throat  red  In  male,   but  white  in  female.     It  sometimes 
girdles  trees  with  the  holes  it  drills. 

NOTE. — In  Sioux  Falls,  S.  D.,  a  beautiful  albino  flicker  was  reared 
in  the  summer  of  1907.  Its  plumage  was  spotless  cream-white  ex- 
cept for  the  red  spot  on  the  head. 

NORTHERN  FLICKER. 

Almost  any  day  in  the  early  springtime  you  can  hear  a  shrill- 
voiced  bird  rapidly  repeating  a  single  tenor  note.  No,  he  is  not  just 
home  from  college,  even  though  he  does  wear  that  jaunty  red  skull 
cap  and  yell  like  an  Indian.  If  you  can  count  fast  enough  you  will 
hear  that  note  as  many  as  fifty  times.  This  peculiar  springtime  yell 
suggested  to  someone,  once  upon  a  time,  the  quivering  light  of  a 
dying  candle  and  he  therefore  called  the  bird  a  "flicker". 

I  was  once  with  a  crowd  in  a  hotel  listening  to  a  wandering 
minstrel  as  he  was  playing  Chopin  in  masterly  style  upon  the  par- 
lor piano.  Presently  a  big  fellow  stepped  up  to  the  door,  listened 
a  while  without  rapture,  then  suddenly  lifting  his  wood-splitting 
voice,  he  shrieked,  "Aw,  play  something!"  That  is  the  way  I  feel 
when  I  hear  a  flicker.  Your  father  may  have  known  him  by  the 
name  wakeup,  or  yellowhammer,  or  highhole,  for  he  has  more  aliases 
than  a  crook,  but  they  were  given  him  with  the  best  of  intentions, 
for  no  bird  could  have  a  hundred  nicknames,  pet  names,  scientific 
names  and  unscientific  names  that  was  not  a  favorite  with  man. 
The  flicker  is  certainly  a  great  favorite  because  he  is  interesting, 
for,  on  the  quiet,  I  shall  tell  you  that  all  of  the  woodpeckers  have 
red  hair  and  tempers  to  match. 

When  they  are  drilling  a  hole  for  a  nest  they  beat  a  very 
rapid  tattoo  upon  the  tree  that  they  have  chosen  for  a  home  and 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that,  like  many  of  our  human  kind, 
they  get  great  satisfaction  from  the  mere  sound  of  their  knocking, 
and  I  am  told  that  at  Yankton  they  have  been  seen  drumming  on 
the  water- works  standpipe.  My !  It  must  sound  good  to  them ! 

When  a  small  boy,  I  was  told  that  I  might  go  to  a  nest  where 
the  mother  bird  was  laying  and  take  all  the  eggs  but  one,  and  if 
I  should  leave  some  corn  in  the  nest  the  mother  would  keep  on 
laying  all  summer.  I  was  bad  enough  to  try  it  and  carried  away 
about  thirty  eggs  before  I  tired  of  the  contest.  Pretty  eggs  they 
are,  waxy  white  in  color  except  as  the  golden  yolks  show  through 
them. 


30  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

The  males  come  north  first  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  a  short 
time  ago  I  saw  the  first  meeting  of  a  pair  of  flickers  as  Lady 
Flicker  arrived  from  the  south.  There  were  many  demonstrations 
of  affection,  and  why  not?  Were  they  not  together  after  a  long 
separation  and  a  perilous  journey?  And  were  they  not  just  about 
to  start  up  house-keeping? 

With  such  large  families  as  they  raise,  a  nestful  always,  it 
is  no  wonder  that  they  violate  woodpecker  traditions  and  go  down 
to  the  ground  for  ants  and  bugs  and  worms,  and  it  is  no  wonder 
that  with  so  many  little  flickers  in  the  nest,  there  is  much  jostling 
among  them  to  see  which  one  shall  get  his  little  open  bill  the  high- 
est when  mama  comes  with  grub  or  grubs.  If  you  really  want  to 
hear  a  buzz  that  buzzes,  you  should  listen  at  a  nest  that  is  full  of 
hungry  little  flickers. 

Think  of  the  ants  the  little  fellows  will  eat !  And  so  fond  are 
flickers  of  that  special  diet  that  nature  has  given  them  a  specialized 
tongue  to  eat  the  ants  with.  No  lover  of  trees  should  ever  shoot 
a  flicker.  Does  he  not  know  that  ants  bore  into  the  wood  of  trees 
and  make  places  in  which  to  herd  lice?  The  lice  give  nectar  just 
as  a  cow  gives  milk,  and  the  ants  milk  them.  Yes,  my  critical 
friend,  ten  per  cent  of  the  flicker's  diet  is  fruit,  but  ninety  per 
cent  of  that  fruit  is  wild  fruit,  and  the  flicker  is  one  of  Nature's 
agents  for  the  distribution  of  fruit  seeds,  and  since  the  birds  have 
planted  the  seeds  of  most  of  the  wild  fruit  that  there  is  in  the 
world,  the  man  who  never  made  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where 
one  grew  before  should  give  up  trying  to  outhammer  the  flicker. 

SAPSUCKER. 

No  wonder  that  Mrs.  Sapsucker's  hair  has  turned  white  for 
her  husband  is  a  wife-beater  and  there  are  good  grounds  for  di- 
vorce especially  on  rainy  days  when  the  old  man  hits  her  over 
the  head  with  his  hammer-like  beak  that  easily  drills  holes  even 
into  wood.  The  Mrs. -meekly  gets  out  into  the  drenching  rain  and 
lets  her  lord  and  master  climb  into  the  deep  hole  that  has  been  ex- 
cavated in  the  rotten  tree-trunk. 

If  he  would  confine  his  drillings  to  rotten  trees  he  would  not 
forever  be  persona  non  grata  to  the  horticulturists,  but  he  drills 
into  the  greenest  trees  just  to  start  the  sap  and  then  gets  food  and 
drink  all  at  once,  for  the  flies  and  the  bugs  come  up  for  a  drink  and 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  31 

are  snapped  up.  He  then  takes  a  drink  of  tree  juice  and  often 
varies  his  diet  with  a  few  mouthfuls  of  the  soft  cambium  layer  just 
under  the  bark. 

Many  a  dead  tree  testifies  to  the  ravages  of  this  slave  of  the 
drink  habit. 

As  with  all  the  woodpeckers,  he  has  the  habit  of  tattooing  on 
the  dead  limbs  or  trunks  of  trees  just  for  the  fun  of  it  and  as  he 
is  an  extremist  in  every  way,  he  indulges  very  largely  in  all  wood- 
pecker sports.  I  have  never  heard  of  a  wife  ever  leaving  her  hus- 
band in  spite  of  his  intemperance,  inhuman  cruelty  and  in- 
compatible temper.  Possibly  she  has  religious  scruples,  or  more 
likely  she  never  stays  in  one  place  long  enough  to  gain  a  residence. 

Woodpeckers  are  hardy  birds  and  are  little  afraid  of  cold 
for  they  are  tree  dwellers  and  their  homes  afford  them  the  best 
of  protection.  They  usually  lay  a  large  number  of  white  eggs  and 
except  from  the  gunners  they  can  generally  protect  themselves. 
Under  such  circumstances  they  come  north  very  early  and  only 
the  question  of  food  supply  causes  them  to  migrate  at  all. 


Goatsuckers. 


Order,  Machrochires. 
Family,  Caprimulgidac. 


Family  characteristics:  They  fly  mostly  at  eventide  and  alight 
upon  their  perches  lengthwise.  They  have  dull  gray  or  brown  plumage 
and  lay  their  eggs  upon  the  ground  without  making  a  nest.  Their  feet 
are  poorly  developed. 

420c.  NIGHTHAWK.  (Bull-bat.)  Chordeiles  virginianus,  sennetti. 
About  the  robin's  length  but  less  plump.  Wings  longer  than  tail.  Dull 
black  and  white  mottling  abovie,  almost  a  drab.  Breast  lighter  color. 
White  rings  on  wings  noticeable  in  flight.  Utters  its  note  in  flight. 
White  patch  on  throat.  Lays  two  grayish  mottled  eggs  on  the  ground, 
often  at  the  ledge  of  a  flat  rock.  Great  insect-eater.  Often  seen  in 
companies. 

416.  WHIPPOORWILL.  ( Chuck-Will's-Wido  w. )  Antrostomus 
carolinensis.  Nearly  as  long  as  a  robin,  it  resemebles  a  nighthawk  but 
has  brown  mottling  instead  of  gray  and  is  without  the  white  rings  on 
its  wings.  Throat  almost  black,  outer  tail  feathers  white  at  extrem- 
ities. To  most  people  it  is  only  a  voice  'at  eventide,  it  is  so  rarely 
seen.  Its  only  song  is  "Whippoorwill",  "Whippoorwill".  Lays  two 
mottled  eggs  on  the  dry  leaves  in  the  woods.  Feeds  on  locusts  and  in- 
sects generally.  Sings  "Whippoorwill"  until  late  in  the  evening. 

NIGHTHAWK. 

A  relative  of  the  chimney-swift,  this  is  no  hawk  at  all  and  he 
seldom  flies  by  night.  Neither  is  he  entitled  to  the  names  "goat- 
sucker" and  "bull  bat"  for  he  is  never  guilty  of  the  implication  of 
the  former  name  and  he  is  not  a  bat  at  all  for  the  bat  is  not  a  bird 
but  a  member  of  the  monkey  family.  That  such  a  number  of  im- 
proper names  "hang  'round  him  still"  shows  how  many  guesses 
masquerade  as  truth.  Like  the  swift  he  is  a  wide-mouthed  insect- 
eater  and  a  boon  to  man. 

Watch  him  as  he  alternately  mounts  and  floats  into  the  upper 
air,  for  "Heaven  is  not  reached  at  a  single  bound",  and  when  he 
has  passed  almost  from  your  view,  you  will  see  him  drop  like  a  fall- 


UPPER  FIGURES— CHESTNUT-BACKED    BLUEBIRD 

Order — PASSERES  Family — TURDID/E 

Genus— SIALIA  Species— MEXICAN  A 

SUBSPECI  ES — BAI  RDI 

LOWER  FIGURES-BLUEBIRDS 

Order — PASSERES  Famiiy — TuRDiDyE 

Genus — SIALIA  Species — SIALIS 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  33 

ing  star  and  as  soon  as  the  sound  can  reach  you,  you  will  hear  a 
noise  like  the  blowing  into  the  bung-hole  of  an  empty  barrel  or 
the  bellowing  of  a  distant  bull.  It  is  only  the  rustle  of  his  wings. 

Do  you  think  that  these  airy  flights  are  ever  equalled  by  the 
bugs  and  flies  ?  It  is  doubtful.  They  go  up  there  for  the  same  rea- 
son that  a  little  boy  climbs  a  hill  in  winter-time,  just  for  the  fun  of 
coming  down ;  for  the  same  reason  that  a  balloonist  takes  to  his 
parachute  or  the  long-haired  lady  makes  the  high  dive  at  the 
circus. 

I  have  seen  a  bird  perch  within  fifteen  feet  of  me  and  for  fif- 
teen minutes  turn  little  somersaults  for  no  apparent  reason  but 
my  pleasure.  It  was  no  doubt  its  method  of  catching  insects.  I 
will  tell  you  about  him  later.  He's  a  sweet  little  bird,  trimmed  with 
orange  and  his  little  wife  has  lemon-colored  trimmings  but  she's 
just  as  sweet. 

By  day  the  nighthawk  sits  upon  fence-rails  as  often  as  any- 
where  for  they  are  nearly  his  color  and  he  always  sits  his  mount 
lengthwise  contrary  to  the  custom  of  other  birds,  so  that  both  his 
color  and  position  are  nicely  suited  to  prevent  detection.  They 
build  no  nest,  but  two  finely  spotted  eggs  are  laid  usually  at  the 
outer  ed're  of  a  flat  rock,  and  it  is  said  that  when  disturbed,  they 
will  carry  their  eggs  away  to  a  place  of  safety  by  grasping  them  in 
their  claws. 

It  is  quite  a  custom  among  birds  that  make  little  or  no  nest, 
to  lay  sharply  pointed  eggs  so  that  when  the  wind  blows,  their 
eggs  will  roll  about  in  circles  and  never  be  blown  away,  but  the 
nighthawk  does  not  follow  this  custom  as  the  quails  and  plovers 
do,  possibly  because  she  trusts  to  removing  them  to  a  better  pro- 
tected home. 

No  one  should  ever  kill  the  little  nighthawk  (he's  only  half  as 
big  as  he  looks)  for  he  spends  his  time  eating  mosquitos  and  moths. 
Why,  that's  the  reason  that  he  flies  at  eventide.  Once  in  a  while  he 
comes  to  town  to  gather  the  harvest  of  bugs  that  circle  about  the 
electric  lights.  Pretty  wise  for  a  bird. 


Swifts. 


Order,  Macrochires. 
Family,  Micropodidae. 


•423.  CHIMNEY  SWIFT.  (Chimney  Swallow.)  Chaetura  pelagi- 
ca.  Five  and  one-half  inches  long — English  sparrow  six  inches.  Very 
wide  wing-spread.  Dark  mouse-color.  Almost  never  seen  sitting. 
Cousin  to  the  nighthawk.  Twitter  as  they  fly.  Glue  their  nests  to 
the  inner  walls  of  chimneys. 

The  pies  that  mother  used  to  make  were  certainly  good  and  the 
old  stone  chimneys  that  grandfather  used  to  make  were  wonder- 
ful. They  were  large  enough  for  a  real  Santa  Glaus  to  come  down 
and  at  the  bottom  of  them  were  fire  places  with  their  hanging 
cranes,  their  brass  andirons  and  fires  all  aglow  with  glory.  No 
rascals  were  reared  wittiin  their  flickering  shadows.  The  family 
sat  about  them  in  a  circle,  for  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a  family 
circle  before  the  family  triangles  became  so  common.  How  the 
swallows  twittered  in  those  old  chimneys!  There  must  have  been 
hundreds  of  them  sitting  upon  the  edges  of  their  nests  of  sticks  and 
glue,  for  they  glued  their  nests  to  the  sides  of  the  chimney  walls 
very  much  as  the  swallows  of  China  do,  that  build  the  edible  nests, 
and  every  little  while  a  nest  of  babies  would  fall  down  the  chimney 
because  they  had.  grown  too  heavy,  for  the  nest  or  the  glue  had  be- 
come melted  by  a  fire  thoughtlessly  started  to  burn  up  some  waste 
paper  or  to  take  the  dampness  out  of  the  air  of  an  unexpected 
cold  day.  Poor  little  things,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  put  the 
fire  out  and  save  the  rest  of  them. 

How  many  evenings  I  have  watched  them  circling  like  mad 
and  twittering  in  their  rapid  flight  as  they  were  clearing  the  even- 
ing air  of  mosquitos.  These  winged  cigars,  for  that  is  what  they 
look  like,  move  their  wings  so  fast  that  scientists  cannot  tell  whether 
they  flap  them  together  or  alternately.  And  the  sport  came  when 
they  went  to  bed  on  the  side  of  the  nestful  of  little  white  eggs. 
Like  streaks  of  darkness  they  shot  to  a  point  a  few  yards  above 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  35 

the  top  of  the  chimney,  then  dropped  zigzagging  into  it  as  though 
they  were  pieces  of  paper  falling  through  the  air.  They  don 't  weigh 
very  much  more.  Company  after  company  would  tumble  in  until 
you  would  think  that  the  chimney  could  hold  no  more. 

Once  upon  a  time  they  lived  in  hollow  trees  and  if  we  cover 
our  chimneys  and  build  them  much  smaller  they  will  go  back  to 
the  hollow  trees  again.  Then  look  out  for  bugs. 

How  do  you  suppose  they  get  the  twigs  with  which  to  build 
their  nests?  They  just  shoot  through  a  tree  and  catch  a  twig  while 
in  full  motion  and  when  they  get  into  a  chimney  they  support  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  the  chimney  by  their  tail  feathers  which  have 
spurs  on  them.  If  I  were  to  build  an  airship  I'd  take  a  chimney 
swift  for  a  pattern.  Did  you  ever  see  one  ?  If  not  you  will  recog- 
nize him  when  you  do  for  he  is  well  named  and  I  think  he  is  swift 
enough  to  fly  around  the  world  in  forty  days  and  forty  nights. 


Humming  birds. 

Order,  Macrochires. 
Family,  Trochilidae. 


428.  RUBY-THROATED  HUMMINGBIRD.  Trochilus  colubris. 
The  smallest  of  our  birds.  Bright  irridescent  green  abovie.  Chin  black. 
Ruby-colored  throat.  Gray  beneath.  Long,  needle-like  bill.  Female 
without  ruby  throat.  Eggs  white. 

"Breathes  there  a  man  with  soul  so  dead"  that  he  does  not 
exclaim  when  he  sees  a  ruby-throat  ?  A  flash,  a  humming  about  the 
canna  bed,  a  flash  to  the  nasturtiums  and  away. "  Gone  like  a  reverie 
at  eventide,  a  lost  chord,  an  artist's  dream,  a  bubble  on  a  reed,  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen.  Sipping  the  honey  dew  while  the  rosy 
petals  pale  before  its  jeweled  throat,  wishing  to  be  gone  and  gone 
ere  the  wish  were  made,  the  very  spirit  of  the  honeysuckle  of  yester- 
year, it  leaves  you  looking  at  the  flower,  its  silent  partner  in  the 
little  world  of  miracles.  Did  it  not  set  you  wondering?  Did  you 
not  feel  the  mystery  of  the  flowers,  the  mystery  of  life?  Did  you 
feel  that  it  needed  a  song  other  than  the  song  without  words  that 
trembled  from  your  heart  strings  ? 

Now  you  stand  by  the  side  of  its  nest,  of  gauzy  lichens,  of 
fluffy  plant-down  and  the  spirits  of  dead  flowers.  Every  tiny  bit 
a  miracle  of  nature  molded  about  the  silken  breast  of  the  sprightly 
little  mother,  so  that  when  she  floats  upon  it,  her  little  heart  will 
warm  the  waxen  eggs  to  life.  You  cannot  raise  a  hand  against  it. 

Twice  I  have  seen  them,  wee,  little  knots  saddled  upon  the 
apple  boughs,  half  hidden  by  the  leaves,  and  twice  were  days  made 
memorable  for  life.  There  was  the  brook  making  the  merry  sun- 
beams dance  as  it  sped  to  the  silent  pool  below;  the  apple  trees 
were  opening  their  myriad  pink  chalices  for  the  drowsy  bees  that 
wheeled  among  them ;  the  leaves  wore  the  waxy  green  of  the  early 
Maytime;  in  the  garden  the  lilac  buds  were  bursting;  the  air  was 
fresh  with  the  breath  of  lilies;  the  aromatic  trees  gave  back  the 
spicy  odors  of  a  burning  censer  and  a  thousand  muffled  bits  of 
insect  music  made  chorus  for  the  humming  of  the  ruby-throat.  And 
the  old  house  stood  there  in  spotless  white  and  green  as  though  it 
thought  it  were  the  center  of  the  landscape,  but  not  for  me — they 
were  all  but  the  settings  of  that  fairy  little  nest. 


Flycatchers. 


Order,  Passer es. 
Family,  Tyrannidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Generally  drab  above  and  white  beneath 
or  dark  olive  above  and  pale  yellow  beneath. 

The  kingbirds  are  noisy.  The  phoebe  and  pewee  call  their  names 
plaintively.  Flycatchers  usually  sally  forth  for  insects  returning  at 
once  to  their  original  perches.  Their  bills  are  short  and  their  mouths 
wide  and  they  generally  have  small  hairs  at  the  base  of  the  bill.  De- 
voted partners,  they  are  usually  seen  in  pairs.  They  are  the  greatest 
insect  destroyers  known  unless  it  be  the  swallows. 

444.  KINGBIRD.  (Beebird.)  Tyrannus  tyrannus.  Eight  inches 
long.  Black  above.  White  beneath.  Black  tail,  edged  with  white 
band.  Has  a  concealed  red  crest.  Usually  four  eggs,  spotted  with 
brown.  A  great  bug-  and  fly-eater. 

447.  ARKANSAS  KINGBIRD.  Tyrannus  verticalis.  Nine  inches 
long.  Easily  known  from  its  resemblance  in  habits  to  the  kingbird. 
Brownish  drab  above,  pale  yellow  below.  Black  tail.  A  great  chatterer. 
Its  nest  and  eggs  are  almost  exactly  like  those  of  the  kingbird  and  it 
has  also  the  concealed  crest  of  red.  Very  common. 

45».  OLIVE-SIDED  FLYCATCHER.  Nuttallornis  Borealis.  Seven 
inches  long.  Olive  on  sides  with  light  yellow  throat.  Dark  olive  above, 
points  darkest,  the  head,  wings  and  tail  being  an  olive-black.  It  has 
strongly  the  characteristics  of  its  family. 

452.  CRESTED  FLYCATCHER.  Myiarchus  crinitus.  Nine  inches 
long.  Distinguished  by  a  crest.  Olive  'above  and  light  yiellow  be- 
low except  for  dark  gray  throat.  Brown  points.  Two  white  wing-bars. 

467.  LEAST  FLYCATCHER.  (Chebec.)  Empidonax  minimus. 
Slightly  smaller  than  an  English  sparrow.  Olive  gray  above,  dull  white 
below.  Its  two  white  wing-bars  and  the  calling  of  its  name,  chebec, 
serve  to  identify  it. 

456.  PHOEBE.  Sayornis  phoebe.  Seven  inches  long.  Black 
brownish-gray,  darkest  on  crown.  Breast  yellowish  white.  Looks  like 
a  pocktet  edition  of  kingbird.  Record — never  did  wrong.  Pronounces 
his  name  often.  Nests  under  bridges.  Eggs  white.  Insect-eater. 

461.  WOOD  PEWEE.  Contopus  virens.  About  the  size  of  an 
English  sparrow.  Dull  olive  above,  dull  gray  below.  Calls  its  name, 
"pe-wee",  "pe-wee",  "pe-wee",  at  long  intervals.  Resembles  phoebe, 
but  Is  smaller.  Two  white  wing-bars. 


38  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

KINGBIRD. 

This  king  is  a  tyrant  if  another  bird  gives  consent.  A  better 
name  than  kingbird  would  be  "the  bluffing  flycatcher"  for  he  is 
king  neither  by  right  of  regal  beauty  nor  kingly  manner.  He  is  a 
tantalizer  of  birds. 

Who  has  not  seen  him  sally  forth  from  his  perch,  tap  some 
passing  bird  upon  the  head  and  return?  When  we  see  him  high 
in  the  air  in  pursuit  of  a  crow  or  a  hawk,  we  smile  to  think  that 
those  big  birds  are  being  whipped  by  the  little  kingbird,  but  they 
hardly  know  that  he  is  following  them.  They  have  business  and 
regard  him  about  as  you  would  a  barking  "black  and  tan." 

He  always  strikes  from  behind  and  never  fights  wing  to  wing. 

If  he  would  only  attend  to  his  business  of  eating  bugs  and 
canker  worms  he  would  be  a  much  beloved  bird.  Many  people 
think  that  he  eats  bees  and  he  does,  but  only  the  drones— except 
when  he  makes  the  wrong  guess.  It  must  be  quite  a  trick  to  tell 
a  drone  from  a  worker  when  they  are  in  full  flight.  How  in  the 
world  do  you  suppose  they  do  it?  Some  think  it  is  due  to  keen 
sight  but  I  have  often  wondered  if  the  buzzing  of  the  drones  is 
not  on  a  lower  key  and  if  it  is  not  hearing  rather  than  sight  that 
aids  them. 

The  male  bird  has  a  concealed  crest  that  is  rose-colored  and 
it  is  claimed  for  him  that  he  throws  the  feathers  of  his  head  forward 
when  a  bee  approaches,  thus  offering  him  a  sort  of  a  milliner's 
rose  as  a  decoy.  The  bee  makes  a  bee-line  for  it  and  finds  a  pair 
of  open  jaws,  thus  supplying  a  dinner  rather  than  getting  one. 

When  I  was  a  little  boy,  my  Sunday  school  teacher  told  me 
that  the  birds  were  all  called  together  soon  after  the  dawn  of 
creation  and  told  that  the  one  that  went  highest  into  the  air  should 
be  king  of  the  birds,  so  they  all  started  upward  together.  One 
after  another,  mud-hen,  prairie  chicken,  sparrow,  swallow  and  the 
rest  fell  to  the  ground  exhausted,  leaving  the  old  eagle  apparently 
the  winner,  when  suddenly  the  kingbird  that  had  concealed  him- 
self on  the  eagle's  back  shot  upward  and  won  the  title. 

The  principal  inconsistency  in  this  story  is  that  the  bee-bird 
kept  still  long  enough  to  fool  the  eagle,  for  he  is  an  incessant  chat- 
terer. However,  a  little  color  is  lent  to  the  story,  for  he  is  forever 
trying  to  get  upon  the  backs  of  the  big  birds. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  39 

The  kingbird  in  late  summer  is  very  common  and  his  nest  en- 
tirely exposed.  It  is  a  serviceable  nest  of  silver-colored  weeds  and 
white  wrapping  twine  and  bits  of  wool,  and  the  four  pretty  eggs 
with  chestnut  blotches  are  guarded  very  carefully.  If  you  go  near 
the  nest,  you  will  get  a  fearful  scolding  for  they  then  become  the 
most  demonstrative  of  birds  and  trust  to  defending  their  nests 
rather  than  concealing  them. 

PHOEBE. 

A  translation  into  English  of  their  bird  notes  has  given  us 
the  names  of  a  few  of  our  birds.  The  chick-a-dee,  the  whip-poor- 
will,  the  chewink,  the  cuckoo  and  the  phoebe  all  pronounce  their 
names  for  you. 

The  phoebe  builds  a  wonderful  nest.  It  is  made  of  mud,  ve- 
neered with  moss  and  lined  with  feathers  and  bits  of  wool.  Sure- 
ly no  nest  is  better  calculated  to  keep  the  eggs  and  babies  warm. 
Like  many  another  good  thing  there  is  often  a  drawback.  Such 
a  nicely  feathered  nest  is  in  danger  of  being  converted  into  a  bug 
house  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  a  brood  of  phoebe 's  babies  lying 
dead  within  their  abandoned  home,  the  poor  little  victims  of  para- 
sites. 

Once  upon  a  time  they  built  their  nests  far  from  the  haunts  of 
men  and  I  have  found  them  on  the  sides  of  cliffs  near  the  water, 
but  now  they  come  closer  to  town  and  build  around  old  mills  and 
abandoned  houses.  I  am  almost  sorry  that  they  are  doing  this, 
for  all  animals  learn  bad  habits  in  town.  City  culture  is  an  awfully 
bad  thing  for  them. 

As  you  drive  along  country  roads  you  are  almost  sure  to  find 
a  phoebe 's  nest  if  you  look  under  the  bridges,  but  do  not  confuse 
them  with  the  barn  swallow,  that  also  builds  his  muddy  nest  be- 
neath the  bridge.  There  will  be  little  trouble  in  telling  them  apart 
if  you  are  watchful,  for  the  barn  swallow  always  wears  his  purple 
swallow-tail  coat  while  phoebe  dresses  like  a  Quaker. 

In  climbing  to  reach  a  phoebe 's  nest,  I  once  loosened  it  so 
that  it  would  not  rest  longer  in  its  place,  so  I  set  it  upon  a  nearby 
beam,  but  the  phoebe  didn't  mind  my  interference  a  bit  and  went 
on  with  her  household  duties.  Most  birds  would  have  abandoned 
their  nests  under  such  circumstances. 

The  cry  of  the  phoebe  is  a  plaintive  one.     You  could  easily 


40  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

imagine  that  the  little  mother  had  been  killed  and  that  her  mate 
who  without  promising  to  do  it  loves  and  cherishes  her  until  death 
parts  them,  is  sadly  calling  for  her.  Every  springtime  the  hus- 
band comes  north  two  weeks  before  his  wife  to  look  up  a  location 
or  to  busy  himself  around  the  old  home ;  then  he  will  sit  for  hours 
and  call  * '  Phoebe !  Phoebe !  Phoebe ! ' '  drooping  his  tail  and  crying 
as  though  he  were  nearly  dead  from  loneliness.  What  he  lives  on  at 
that  time  is  hard  to  tell,  for  his  chosen  insect  food  is  still  unhatched. 
You  may  be  sure  that  all  of  the  flycatchers  pay  their  way  and  are 
worth  their  pay. 

Once  I  saw  a  hunter  level  his  gun  at  a  phoebe  as  he  sat  upon 
a  willow  branch  calling  his  mate;  I  saw  it  fall  and  as  I  rushed  to 
take  it  in  my  hand  I  found  it  only  wounded. 

And  oh,  the  silken  jacket, 

And  the  little  yellow  vest, 

And  oh,  the  little  throbbing  heart, 

And  oh,  oh,  all  the  rest, 

And  the  little  eyes  that  sparkled 

As  I  took  him  in  my  hand, 

And  I  fear  he  thought  I  did  it 

For  he  didn't  understand. 


Larks. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Alaudidae. 


474b.  PRAIRIE  HORNED  LARK.  Octocoris  alpestris  praticola. 
Length  seven  and  one-half  inches.  Black  line  extending  from  sides  of 
mouth  and  black  necklace.  Back,  pale  wine-colored  brown.  Yellowish 
white  throat.  Black  tail,  except  in  flight  when  white  feathers  are  visi- 
ble. Fast  little  roadrunner.  Found  by  the  roadside  in  the  fields  es- 
pecially on  the  plains. 

What  do  you  think  of  a  little  bird  with  horns?  Do  you  think 
that  he  must  be  very,  very  bad  ?  No  so,  for  they  are  not  real  horns, 
only  some  long  feathers  that  stick  up  from  the  sides  of  his  head 
like  feathers  on  a  lady 's  hat.  The  lady  lark  wishing  perhaps,  to  set 
the  ladies  of  society  a  good  example,  never  wears  plumes  even  in  her 
Easter  bonnet.  It  is  only  the  gentleman  lark  that  wears  them, 
but  it  may  be  that  he  belongs  to  some  secret  society  and  the  plumes 
are  a  part  of  his  regalia  and  that  may  be  the  reason  that  he  got  the 
name  of  "lark". 

It  is  April  now,  but  they  have  already  nested,  not  the  meadow- 
larks,  for  they  are  too  busy  giving  concerts,  but  the  horned-larks 
that  have  spent  the  winter  with  us.  He's  the  "early  bird",  but 
he's  too  early  for  the  worm.  The  sparrow-like  nest  and  the  spar- 
row-like eggs  and  the  sparrow-like  bird  would  lead  you  to  suspect 
that  he  is  a  sparrow,  but  he  is  not.  He  is  the  first  cousin  and  near- 
est American  relative  of  the  European  skylark,  of  which  Shelley 
sang: 

1 '  Higher  still  and  higher, 

From  the  earth  thou  springest; 

Like  a  cloud  of  fire, 

The  blue  deep  thou  wingest, 

And  singing  still  dost  soar  and  soaring  ever  singest." 

Our  horned-lark,  it  is  said,  often  shows  the  family  character- 
istic by  a  song-flight,  but  while  I  have  seen  the  flight,  I  have  never 


42  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

heard  the  music  "till  the  sweet- voiced  bird  has  flown,"  and  then 
only  the  spirit  of  a  song. 

On  the  unsettled  prairie  land  west  of  the  Missouri  river,  it  is 
the  most  common  of  all  birds,  but  in  the  more  thickly  settled  parts 
of  the  west  it  is  far  less  numerous.  While  you  are  driving  out  into 
the  country  you  may  see  many  of  them  flying  over  the  fields,  but 
if  you  wish  to  get  a  good  view  of  one,  watch  the  road-ruts  ahead  of 
you.  When  you  come  upon  him  he  will  squat  down  into  the  dust, 
trusting  to  his  similarity  in  color  to  deceive  you;  he  will  pull  in 
his  horns  too,  hoping  (not  hopping,  he  never  hops)  thus  to  escape 
notice.  If  he  sees  that  you  are  aware  of  his  presence,  he  will  take 
to  his  heels  and  run  up  the  road  like  a  racer  and  if  he  cannot  beat 
you  he  will  take  to  his  wings. 

His  diet  is  a  prairie  diet  of  bugs  and  seeds  and  his  book  ac- 
count with  man  always  shows  a  balance  in  his  favor  for  there  is 
never  a  charge  against  him. 


Crows  and  Jays. 


Order,  JPasseres. 
Family,  Corvidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  The  crows  are  black,  the  jays  largely 
blue.  Harsh  voices.  Mischievous  and  intelligent  birds  of  large  size. 
They  will  eat  meat,  grain  or  anything  else.  They  are  of  no  great 
economic  value,  but  as  a  part  of  the  landscape  they  could  hardly  be 
spared. 

488.  AMERICAN  CROW.  Corvus  Americanus.  Seventeen  inches 
long.  Black  all  over  with  violet  gloss.  Nests  in  tall  forest  trees.  A 
social  bird.  Can  be  identified  by  his  cry,  "Caw!"  "Caw!"  Very  in- 
telligent. 

477.  BLUE  JAY.  Cyanocitta  cristata.  Eleven  inches  long.  Blue 
above.  Black  collar.  Wings  and  tail  blue  with  white  stripes.  Breast 
dull  white.  Bill  black.  Has  a  crest.  A  brilliant  bird  but  mischievous. 

484.  CANADA  JAY.  (Camp  Robber.)  Perisoreus  canadensis. 
Twelve  inches  long.  Gray  above  and  beneath.  Darker  tints  on  wings 
and  tail.  Dull  black  on  back  of  head  and  neck.  Lighter  gray  on 
breast.  Throat  and  neck  white.  Very  sociable  and  even  bold. 

475.  MAGPIE.  Pica  pica  hudsonica.  Nineteen  inches  long.  Tail 
long  for  a  bird  of  its  size.  Black  except  wings  and  breast  which  have 
much  white.  Common  along  parts  of  Missouri  River  and  Black  Hills. 
Very  intelligent  and  mischievous.  Bill  black.  Nest  very  large  and 
contains  almost  anything.  Eats  almost  anything.  It  is  said  to  be 
unlucky  if  you  see  only  one. 

486a.  NORTHERN  RAVEN.  Corvus  Corax  principalis.  Two  feet 
long.  Resembles  the  common  crow.  Not  common  though  seen  occa- 
sionally along  the  Missouri  River.  Color  a  blue-black.  Nests  on  cliffs 
and  places  hard  to  reach.  Most  birds  of  this  family  have  greenish 
eggs  heavily  blotched.  Eats  refuse. 

AMERICAN  CROW. 

Although  the  crow  is  a  bird  of  conspicuous  plumage,  of  bad  re- 
pute and  has  had  a  price  set  upon  his  head  by  many  bountiful 
states,  he  seems  to  increase  rapidly  and  to  thrive  everywhere.  He 
does  so  entirely  because  he  has  the  shrewdness  so  generally  char- 
acteristic of  birds  of  the  black  feather. 


44  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

Whoever  has  tried  to  climb  up  to  the  rickety  old  crow's  nest 
in  the  very  top  of  a  tall  tree,  knows  what  a  job  it  is,  and  the  very 
beauty  of  the  blotched  green  eggs  will  often  stay  his  hand  from  rob- 
bing. 

That  expression  "an  eye  like  an  eagle's"  could  just  as 
well  be  "an  eye  like  a  crow's"  for  nothing  escapes  him.  He  knows 
when  you  have  a  gun  and  when  you  haven't.  He  can  detect  poi- 
soned corn  better  than  you  can  tell  mushrooms  from  toadstools, 
and  you  can  sneak  up  on  the  sentinel-guarded  goose  better  than  you 
can  on  him. 

He  is  a  miser  and  uses  old  stumps  as  safety  deposit  vaults. 
Down  under  the  bed  of  leaves  within  a  hollow  stump  may  be  found 
bits  of  broken  glass,  pieces  of  crockery  and  tin  and  many  another 
eye-charmer  placed  there  by  this  hoarder  of  wealth.  Now  and  then 
he  will  visit  his  treasures,  will  kick  away  the  leaves,  pick  his  prizes 
over  and  over  as  though  to  count  them,  and  then  he  will  bury  them 
again. 

Any  assertion  that  the  crow  can  sing  should  be  challenged  for 
'  i  caws ' ' — a  bad  pun  to  be  sure,  but  he  deserves  it. 

Among  his  other  deeds  that  are  almost  as  bad  as  his  croaking 
song,  is  his  destruction  of  the  young  of  other  birds,  his  acts  of 
gluttony  when  he  finds  a  nestful  of  eggs  and  his  thievery  of  corn. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  ledger  and  to  his  credit  are  the  facts 
that  he  eats  fieldmice,  worms,  and  carrion,  and  looks  pretty  at  a 
distance. 

For  him  as  for  the  English  sparrow  and  other  birds  that  have 
the  worst  charged  up  against  them,  we  need  no  protective  laws. 
Even  destructive  laws  have  little  effect. 

With  all  his  meanness  there  is  a  fascination  about  him  and  the 
poets  have  not  been  able  to  forget  him. 

BLUE  JAY. 

Fine  feathers  do  not  always  make  fine  birds,  if  they  did  the 
jay  would  never  be  hauled  before  the  court.  He  has  often  had  to 
stand  trial  for  tearing  to  pieces  the  nests  of  other  birds,  of  eating 
their  eggs  and  even  their  young.  There  is  hardly  a  bird-crime 
that  has  not  been  charged  against  him,  from  larceny,  mayhem,  and 
kidnaping  to  murder,  yet  he  is  such  an  aristocrat  that  he  generally 
gets  acquitted — even  the  federal  court  of  the  biological  department 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  45 

at  Washington  on  final  appeal  looked  so  lightly  on  his  misdeeds 
that  it  let  him  out  on  parole.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  does  more  good 
than  evil. 

A  bird  with  a  voice  like  his  would  arouse  your  suspicion  at 
all  times.  If  you  should  see  him  get  angry  you  would  be  sure  that 
much  of  his  talk  should  not  be  printed  and  when  he  makes  love  he 
does  it  not  as  a  dove  would,  nor  as  a  gentleman  should,  but  much  as 
a  conceited  French  count  might  propose  to  an  American  heiress.  He 
bows  and  scrapes  and  dances  and  jabbers.  You  see  this  refers  to 
the  male  jay  for  though  the  words  "garrulous"  and  "girl"  are 
said  to  have  a  common  6rigin,  it  is  not  especially  the  lady  jay  that 
is  loquacious. 

He  is  conceited  beyond  endurance  and  the  only  two  things  in 
his  favor  are  his  personal  appearance  and  the  fact  that  he  plants 
seeds,  nuts  and  especially  acorns. 

It  would  be  too  bad  to  lose  him,  for  we  have  so  few  birds  in 
blue.  The  bluebird,  the  indigo  bunting,  the  kingfisher  and  the  jay 
are  about  all.  Nature  is  sparing  of  her  blue  and  what  is  true  of  the 
birds  is  true  of  the  flowers.  Perhaps  rarity  made  purple  the  royal 
color.  Sir  John  Lubbock  says  that  flowers  pass  through  the  stages 
of  green,  white,  yellow,  and  often  red,  before  becoming  blue. 

Like  most  of  the  family  (crow),  the  jay  builds  a  bulky  nest 
in  almost  any  kind  of  a  tree  and  of  almost  any  old  thing  from  twigs 
to  weeds  and  from  roots  to  rags.  Once  in  a  while  mud  is  used  and 
the  four  eggs  are  mud-colored  and  apparently  mud-spotted.  Mi- 
nerva would  have  done  better  to  have  made  him  her  favorite  bird 
instead  of  the  owl,  and  she  probably  would  have  done  so  if  he  did 
not  have  the  persistent  habit  of  talking  too  much.  In  other  respects 
he  is  wiser  than  an  owl. 

CANADA  JAY. 

About  fifteen  years  ago  while  camping  in  the  Black  Hills  we 
had  spread  our  table  upon  the  ground  beneath  a  large  tree  near  a 
bubbling  spring,  when  to  our  surprise  a  number  of  birds  of  the 
above  description,  swooped  silently  down  upon  the  festive  board  and 
helped  themselves  with  the  utmost  freedom  and  good  fellowship. 
We  were  so  astonished  and  even  pleased  that  we  welcomed  the 
coming  guest  but  when  they  began  to  carry  our  lunch  away  with 


46  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

them  we  felt  like  speeding  the  parting  guest  with  something  less 
desirable  than  a  Godspeed. 

Talk  about  nerve !  And  table  manners !  They  were  as  long  on 
one  as  they  were  short  on  the  other. 

Campers  say  that  they  will  even  ride  down  the  river  with 
them  in  their  boats  and  steal  anything  from  a  bar  of  soap  to  a  sad 
die  of  vension,  returning  for  bits  of  it  at  regular  intervals  until  they 
are  bloody  from  tip  to  tail.  As  they  do  not  care  for  wind  nor 
weather,  often  sitting  on  their  eggs  so  early  in  the  spring  that  every- 
thing freezes  but  the  eggs  and  themselves,  they  store  up,  or  lay 
down,  meat  for  the  winter.  Their  energy  and  providence  are  about 
all  the  good  that  is  evident  in  them  unless  you  admire  that  kind  of 
mischief  that  is  open  and  above  board  as  his  is,  for  he  is  a  real 
free-booter — very  free. 

They  are  not  as  saucy  as  their  cousins,  the  blue  jays,  and  don't 
really  try  to  steal,  for  they  just  assume  that  the  world  owes  them  a 
living  and  they  take  it.  A  favorite  name  for  them  is  Whiskey 
John,  a  name  that  sounds  somewhat  like  the  name  that  the  Indians 
gave  them.  It  is  a  misnomer  but  doubtless  they  would  drink  whis- 
key if  they  could  get  it  for  they  have  never  been  known  to  refuse 
anything. 

MAGPIE. 

Along  the  Missouri  River  and  in  the  Black  Hills,  magpies  are 
to  be  found  in  fairly  large  numbers.  They  are  possessed  by  devils 
if  such  things  are  possible,  and  they  can  think  of  more  mischief  than 
a  crowd  of  bad  boys.  They  are  easily  tamed  and  become  interest- 
ing pets,  though  you  must  be  prepared  to  have  your  ink-bottles 
tipped  over  and  your  papers  scattered  about  the  room.  A  pet  mag- 
pie owned  by  so  near  a  friend  of  mine  that  I  felt  that  I  owned  two- 
thirds  of  the  bird,  had  a  habit  of  going  to  the  station  as  often  as  a 
train  came  in  and  riding  out  of  town  a  mile  or  two  before  return- 
ing by  his  easy  and  graceful  flight.  One  day  he  failed  to  return 
and  it  is  probable  that  having  gone  inside  one  of  the  cars,  he  be- 
came the  property  of  some  bird-fancier  within.  It  was  a  common 
habit  of  "Mag"  to  pester  the  cat  and  "Tabby"  seemed  to  submit 
as  though  she  had  to  do  it. 

Magpies  build  very  large  bulky  nests  and  have  all  kinds  of 
strange  conceits  that  lead  them  to  work  fancy  articles  into  them. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  47 

Glass,  old  bits  of  broken  crockery  and  such  stuff  help  to  gratify 
''Mag's"  vanity.  It  would  be  exaggerating  to  say  that  magpies 
are  of  very  great  economic  value,  but  they  are  mighty  interesting 
and  we  can't  afford  to  lose  them. 

Caged  canary  birds  are  not  very  valuable  economically,  but 
there  are  many  people  who  enjoy  them  and  that  is  the  only  justi- 
fication for  depriving  them  of  their  liberty.  It  would  take  some 
one  stronger  in  logic  than  I  am  to  justify  such  a  procedure  in  any 
event.  But  then  "God  made  the  world  for  man  alone"  is  the 
theory  and  religion  of  many  men. 


Blackbirds  and  Orioles, 


Order    Passeres. 
Family,  Icteridae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Black  or  black  in  combination  with  white, 
yellow  or  red.  They  generally  live  in  colonies.  The  blackbirds  and 
grackles  have  rather  harsh  voices  but  the  bobolink,  the  meadow  lark 
and  the  orioles  are  among  our  finest  singers.  They  live  on  insects, 
worms  and  seeds  and  the  small  'amount  of  grain  they  eat  is  nothing 
compared  with  the  good  that  they  do. 

498.  RED-WINGED  BLACKBIRD.  Agelaius  phoeniceus.  Length 
nine  inches.  Male  entirely  black  except  a  patch  of  scarlet  on  his 
wings.  The  scarlet  'seems  tipped  with  yellow.  Female  without  red  on 
wings  and  mottled  black  and  dull  drab.  Common  about  swamps  and 
marshes. 

509.  RUSTY    BLACKBIRD.      Scolecophagus    Garolinus.        About 
nine  inches  long.      Rusty  black  with  bluish  reflections  on  neck.      No 
special  color  markings  as  with  most  blackbirds.     Light  yellow  eyes. 

495.  COWBIRD.  Molothrus  ater.  Seven  and  one  half-inches  long. 
Black  all  over.  Copper-colored  reflections  on  neck  of  male  bird.  Fe- 
male brownish-Wack.  Eats  eggs  of  other  birds. 

510.  BREWER     BLACKBIRD.        Scolecophagus     cyanocephalus. 
About  nine  inches  long.     Entirely  black  with  strong  purple  reflections. 
Yellow  eyes  are  a  noticeable  characteristic.     Apparently  a  small-sized 
grackle.     Common  in  the  Black  Hills. 

497.  YELLOW-HEADED  BLACKBIRD.  Xanthocephalus  Xan- 
thocephalus.  Somewhat  larger  than  the  more  common  red-winged 
blackbird  and  usually  found  in  company  with  them.  Entire  head  bright 
yellow.  Wings  with  white  patches.  Hoarse  voice  when  it  tries  to  sing. 
Nests  are  fastened  to  rushes  like  the  red-wing's.  Very  common. 

5 lib.  BRONZED  GRACKLE.  Quiscalus  quiscula  aeneus.  Twelve 
and  one-half  inches  long.  Entinely  black  except  for  a  purple  and  bronze 
luster,  strongest  on  body.  Yellow  eyes.  Called  "crow  blackbird". 
Nests  in  colonies.  Has  a  harsh  voice.  Bulky  nests  of  mud  'and  dry 
grass.  They  walk  much  of  the  time  and  steer  themselves  in  flight  by 
their  tails.  Their  voices  are  bad  but  their  services  give  them  a  credit 
balance. 


KILLDEER 
Order— LIMICOL^E  Family— CHARADRIID-B 


Genus — 


Species— Voci  FERA 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  49 

511.  PURPLE  GRACKLE.  Quiscalus  quiscula.  Twelve  and  one- 
half  inches  long.  Entirely  black  with  purple  luster.  Yellow  eyes. 
Called  "crow  blackbird".  Harsh  voice.  Nests  in  colonies.  Bulky  nests 
of  mud  and  dry  grass.  Differs  from  the  bronzed  grackle  in  having 
indistinctly  barred  plumage. 

501b.  WESTERN  MEADOW  LARK.  Sturnella  magna  neglecta. 
About  the  length  of  the  robin  but  a  little  larger.  Brown  and  yellow 
above.  Yellow  throat.  Black  collar.  Two  white  feathers  in  tail,  very 
noticeable  in  flight.  Good  singer.  Nests  often  roofed  over  and  hard  to 
find.  Very  common  on  the  prairies. 

507.  BALTIMORE  ORIOLE.  Icturus  galbula.  Nearly  eight  inches 
long.  Black  head.  Wings  black  and  barred  with  white.  Body  bright 
orange.  Tail  yellow  and  black.  Female  yellow  and  brown  instead  of 
orange  and  black.  Builds  a  high,  hanging  nest,  most  often  in  elms. 

506.  ORCHARD  ORIOLE.  Icturus  spurius.  About  an  inch  long- 
er than  the  English  sparrow.  The  smallest  of  the  blackbirds.  Mostly 
black  above  with  black  head,  throat  and  tail.  Orange-chestnut  below. 
Chestnut  on  wings.  Would  never  be  thought  of  as  a  blackbird  but  as 
an  oriole.  Nest  is  made  of  green  grass.  A  valuable  insect  destroyer. 

494.  BOBOLINK.  (Swamp  Blackbird,  Rice  Bird,  Reed  Bird.) 
Dolichonix  oryzivorus.  Seven  inches  long.  Mostly  black.  Yellowish- 
white  hood.  Mone  or  less  white  on  wings  and  tail.  Female  mostly 
yellowish-brown.  Sings  while  flying. 

RED-WINGED  BLACKBIRD. 

As  you  wander  about  a  marshy  place  where  the  cat-o 'nine- 
tails  grow,  you  will  almost  surely  see  a  number  of  red-wings'. 
They  are  sociable  birds  as  are  most  birds  of  black  feather, 
sociable  among  themselves,  but  they  will  lose  no  time  in  letting 
you  know  that  you  are  not  a  welcome  visitor.  Their  cry  at  such 
time  is  as  full  of  fear  and  sorrow  as  an  earthly  note  can  be  and 
much  in  contrast  to  the  piping  of  his  "Co-ka-lee"  as  he  sits  above 
his  nesting  mate.  When  you  approach  his  nest  that  is  carefully 
fastened  to  the  reeds  he  will  hover  above  you  and  almost  betray 
its  location.  The  chances  are  that  you  will  have  to  wade  to  see 
it,  as  they  know  how  to  cheat  the  squirrels  and  almost  every- 
thing else  except  their  arch-enemies,  men.  What  a  shame  that 
they  are  so  often  put  upon  the  list  of  birds  that  may  be  killed 
with  impunity! 

When  you  have  reached  the  nest,  leave  it  alone,  but  notice 


50  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

the  peculiar  marking  upon  the  eggs.  They  look  as  though  a  three- 
year-old  baby  had  been  given  the  little  pale  blue  eggs  and  a  fine 
brush  full  of  black  paint  and  told  to  decorate  them.  Of  course 
no  two  are  alike.  If  you  don't  find  a  cowbird's  egg  in  every 
nest  it  will  be  a  wonder  for  the  redwing  is  so  amiable  that  she 
never  objects. 

If  you  could  see  the  tons  of  bugs  and  worms  that  they  eat 
in  a  season,  you  would  never  kill  one  of  them.  Why,  chinch- 
bug  salad  and  cut-worm  pudding  are  always  on  their  menu  in 
season. 

For  some  reason  every  farmer  wants  his  "four  and  twenty 
blackbirds  baked  into  a  pie"  or  worse  than  that,  wants  to  see 
how  many  of  them  he  can  kill  at  one  shot,  for  they  often  are 
in  very  large  flocks  as  they  make  the  valleys  ring  with  their 
choruses.  If  you  never  heard  a  blackbird  chorus  in  which  the 
redwings,  the  yellow-heads,  the  rustys  and  the  grackles  join,  you 
have  missed  the  prettiest  melody  of  bird  music. 

Mr.  Farmer,  please  stop  shooting  them.  Don't  you  remem- 
ber how,  while  you  were  wearily  trudging  behind  your  plow, 
they  followed  in  your  furrow  and  ate  the  bugs  and  the  grubs 
and  the  worms,  keeping  you  company  and  cheering  you  with 
their  songs?  Is  corn  so  dear  that  you  will  not  give  them  a  very 
little  share  of  what  they  earn? 

COWBIRD. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  lot  of  small  birds  hanging  around  where 
the  cows  are,  now  sitting  on  their  backs,  now  if  the  sun  is  hot, 
walking  in  the  cow's  shadow  eating  flies  and  bugs  that  are  bother- 
ing them?  They  were  cow  birds. 

There  are  sacred  birds  of  Egypt  that  walk  into  the  very 
throats  of  the  crocodiles  and  eat  the  bloodsuckers,  and  the 
crocodiles  never  harm  them.  Doubtless  the  cows  would  never 
harm  their  faithful  little  friends  the  cow  birds,  even  if  they 
could,  for  that  would  surely  dissolve  the  partnership.  The  cow 
says  to  the  bird  "I  will  let  you  use  me  as  a  perch,  I  will  let  you 
keep  cool  in  my  shadow,  I  will  decoy  bugs  for  you  and  scare 
hoppers  out  of  the  grass  with  my  nose;  all  that  I  want  you  to  do 
is  to  eat  'skeeters'."  "All  right"  says  the  cow  bird  in  an  under- 
tone— and  that  is  about  all  that  he  ever  says. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  51 

But  let  me  tell  you  the  bad  things  about  him.  True,  we 
should  never  speak  ill  of  anybody,  but  I'll  tell  just  you,  for  I 
know  that  you  will  never  mention  it.  He  is  a  very  lazy  bird. 
He  and  his  wife  never  build  a  house.  When  nesting  time  comes 
lady  bunting  goes  about  until  she  finds  a  suitable  nest  be- 
longing to  another  bird,  and  she  lays  her  eggs  in  it; 
the  next  egg  she  will  very  likely  lay  in  another  nest.  In 
that  way  she  imposes  upon  the  red-wing  blackbird,  the  yellow 
warbler,  the  vireo,  the  lark  bunting,  the  chewink  and  the  spar- 
row. So  you  see  she  does  not  always  seek  the  nest  of  a  smaller 
bird  as  many  people  think,  though  she  generally  does  that  very 
thing.  The  reason  for  choosing  a  smaller  bird's  nest  is  that  her 
baby  would  crowd  the  smaller  babies  out  if  there  were  not  room 
in  the  nest  for  all.  She  seems  to  me  to  use  even  a  better  method. 
She  is  quite  sure  to  get  her  eggs  into  the  nest  fairly  early  and 
her  eggs  hatch  sooner  than  those  of  the  larger  birds  and  her 
babies  mature  faster  and  in  that  way  are  quite  able  to  hold  their 
own.  The  eggs  of  some  birds  you  know,  will  hatch  in  a  week 
while  others  require  as  long  as  three  weeks. 

She  has  another  method  of  making  sure  that  her  young  will 
get  an  even  start  and  that  is  to  kick  the  other  bird's  egg  out  of 
the  nest. 

They  say  that  the  reason  the  cowbird  never  builds  a  nest 
is  that  she  lays  her  eggs  so  many  days  apart  that  the  first  will 
spoil  by  the  time  the  last  one  is  laid.  You  may  believe  that 
theory  if  you  wish  to;  I  think  that  the  tendency  to  get  lazy  is  as 
strong  among  birds  as  among  men  and  that  the  cow  bird,  a  mem- 
ber of  our  smartest  bird  family  has  found  this  labor-saving 
method,  for  being  fairly  lazy  she  probably  built  a  poor  nest  that 
was  easily  blown  to  pieces ;  then  when  she  wanted  to  lay  she  found 
herself  with  no  nest  of  her  own,  so  made  use  of  the  nest  of  an- 
other. 

In  the  fall  when  the  blackbirds  flock,  the  cow  birds  join  them 
but  they  take  little  part  in  the  splendid  choruses  that  come  from 
the  tree  top  that  holds  a  thousand  blackbirds,  for  they  have  only 
a  little  far-away  note  and  I  fear  a  real  song  would  be  too  hard 
work  for  them. 


52  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

MEADOW  LABK. 

Nothing  in  bird  life  seems  more  certain  to  me  than  that  our 
meadow  lark  sings  with  a  clearer  and  a  fuller  voice  than  its  eastern 
brother.  He  sings  more  and  oftener  too.  Every  morning  bright 
and  early  the  voice  of  the  lark  is  the  first  to  reach  my  ear,  for 
there  is  a  splendid  specimen  that  starts  in  with  its  favorite  song, 
"I'm  a  pretty  creature"  and  sings  it  almost  under  my  very 
window.  I  should  miss  it  more  than  the  striking  of  the  clock 
that  tells  me  it  is  time  to  "arise  and  shine".  As  often  happens 
this  particular  lark  has  a  song  of  his  own  not  sung  by  others  of 
his  species,  a  very  rich  song  that  at  first  fooled  me  into  the  be- 
lief that  a  mocking-bird  was  near. 

I  have  often  seen  one  of  them  take  his  place  on  the  top  of 
a  telephone  pole  and  start  in  upon  his  repertoire,  singing  each 
song  seven  times  at  short  intervals  then  changing  to  another  song 
and  so  on  until  seven  songs  were  sung.  Of  course  there  was  not 
always  perfect  accuracy  in  the  count  for  you  must  remember 
that  the  lark  is  an  artist  and  not  a  scientist. 

Of  course  if  you  "know  a  hawk  from  a  hand-saw"  you  know 
the  meadow  lark  with  his  yellow  shirt-waist  cut  V-shaped  and 
edged  with  black  at  the  top  of  the  corsage.  You  have  seen  one 
walking  about  on  almost  every  acre  of  our  western  prairies,  but 
you  have  never  seen  many  of  their  nests,  for  they  use  the  dried 
grass  with  which  to  build  them  and  arch  them  over  so  that  the 
exit  is  on  the  side.  They  even  build  at  times  a  sort  of  covered 
run -way  so  that  they  may  sneak  without  detection  a  few  feet 
away  from  the  nest  before  flying. 

There  are  many  of  them  shot  every  year  by  "sports,"  none 
of  course  by  sportsmen,  for  they  are  constantly  rising  before  the 
hunters  and  their  flight  is  wonderfully  like  that  of  the  prairie- 
chicken,  so  they  make  good  birds  to  try  the  gun  on. 

Who  would  ever  think  that  he  is  a  blackbird?  That's  his 
family.  Why  not?  He  walks;  he  flocks;  he  sings;  he  loves  the 
meadows;  he  eats  worms  and  larvae;  he  is  sociable  and  has  al- 
most every  habit  of  the  blackbird. 

Though  useful  beyond  measure  and  perfectly  harmless  he 
has  many  enemies  and  must  lay  six  eggs  at  a  nesting  and  must 
nest  three  times  in  a  season.  What  are  his  enemies,  do  you  ask? 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  53 

Oh,  squirrels  and  owls  and  hawks  and  snakes  and  men — about 
in  that  order  I  should  say. 

BALTIMORE  ORIOLE. 

When  Lord  Baltimore  established  his  colony  in  Maryland 
he  was  much  impressed  by  the  number  of  bright  plumaged  birds 
that  he  saw.  The  one,  however,  that  wore  the  colors  of  the 
Baltimore  family  (orange  and  black)  soon  became  the  "Balti- 
more Oriole". 

The  word  Oriole  means  "golden".  Perched  upon  one  of  the 
outer  branches  of  an  elm  tree  the  oriole  will  attract  you  at  first 
by  his  song  that  has  both  volume  and  melody.  You  will  glance 
up  at  him  and  you  will  feel  at  once  that  an  aristocrat  has  ap- 
peared among  the  birds. 

His  less  conspicuous  mate  is  working  a  miracle.  She  is 
building  a  castle  in  the  air.  Far  out  on  the  tip  of  a  swaying 
branch  she  is  weaving  horsehair,  strings,  yarn  and  plant  fiber 
into  the  prettiest  nest  imaginable.  It  is  a  swinging  nest,  narrow 
at  the  top  and  very  deep,  for  it  must  exclude  the  rain  and  keep 
the  hawks  and  jays  from  getting  at  its  contents.  What  enemy 
but  a  winged  one  can  reach  it? 

Of  all  the  birds  this  one  seems  to  me  to  have  attained  the 
greatest  perfection  in  the  construction  of  its  nest.  Squirrels  can- 
not run  to  it,  snakes  cannot  crawl  to  it,  boys  cannot  climb  to  it. 
It  looks  almost  like  a  wasp's  nest  and  I  doubt  that  the  birds  care 
to  fly  to  it. 

It  is  woven  thinly  enough  above  to  be  airy  and  thickly 
enough  below  to  be  warm  and,  swinging  like  a  cradle,  it  makes 
poets  of  the  baby  birds. 

There  are  few  moths,  worms  and  caterpillars  around  where  the 
orioles  are. 

I  am  sure  that  when  you  first  saw  the  male  bird  in  full 
plumage  you  agreed  with  Lady  Oriole: 

"For  good  Mrs.  0.  who  sat  hatching  her  eggs 
And  only  just  left  them  to  stretch  her  poor  legs, 
And  pick  for  a  minute  the  worm  she  preferred 
Thought  there  never  was  seen  such  a  beautiful  bird." 


54  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

BOBOLINK. 

A  man  would  have  to  be  pretty  small  himself  to  shoot  so  small 
a  bird  as  Robert  o 'Lincoln  just  to  gratify  his  appetite,  but  a 
mouth  that  will  moisten  at  turtles  and  tripe,  eels  and  frog-legs 
and  possum  and  skunk  will  fairly  water  at  the  sight  of  a  plate 
of  bobolinks. 

No  doubt  he  is  a  dainty  morsel  especially  when  he  has  grown 
fat  in  the  rice  fields  of  the  south  where  he  is  known  as  the  rice- 
bird  and  the  reedbird,  but  how  absurd  it  is  to  want  to  eat  every- 
thing that  is  dainty. 

He  sings  a  very  pretty  song  while  on  the  wing,  something 
that  few  birds  ever  do,  though  of  course  many  of  them  shout  a 
characteristic  note  or  two.  But  the  bobolink  starts  upward  with 
his  song  and  as  he  reaches  his  climax,  he  floats  away  to  earth 
again  as  lightly  as  a  flake  of  falling  snow.  In  New  England  he 
is  thought  to  say  "The  devil,  the  devil  is  in  all  people  for  putting 
in  Bill  Prentice  as  justice  of  the  peace".  I  fear  that  Bill  was 
beaten  by  the  bobolinks  the  next  time  he  ran. 

In  the  west  the  bobolink  is  often  confused  with  the  lark 
bunting  which  is  smaller  and  wears  no  hood. 

Though  our  cheerful  little  friend  has  many  names,  Robert 
0 'Lincoln,  nicknamed  bobolink,  is  his  real  name,  more  aristocratic 
than  * '  skunk-black-bird ' '  which  is  given  him  because  of  his  seem- 
ing fondness  for  that  malodorous  plant  of  the  marshes.  Per- 
haps he  often  places  his  nest  near  it  with  the  hope  that  his  enemies 
will  keep  their  distance. 

It  is  hard  to  find  the  nest  of  Lady  Bob  for  she  will  sneak 
away  to  quite  a  distance  before  she  will  take  to  her  wings  and  if 
you  come  upon  her  while  she  is  sitting  upon  her  eggs  she  will 
very  likely  crouch  and  trust  to  luck  for  a  moment  for  she  wears 
her  feathers  to  match  her  nest. 

How  strange  it  is  that  man  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  the  birds ! 
Squirrels  and  snakes  are  not  in  the  same  class  with  him  for  he 
destroys  in  one  way  or  another  as  many  as  are  destroyed  by  all 
other  causes.  How  many  nests  are  turned  under  by  the  plow! 
How  many  go  up  in  smoke  at  the  burning  of  the  fields  in  spring- 
time! How  many  fall  when  man,  arm  in  arm  with  death,  goes 
forth  in  search  of  food  or  feathers !  They  are  going.  The  scarlet 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  55 

tanager,  the  tricolor,  the  cardinal,  the  indigo  bird,  the  bobolink, 
a  million  billion  beauties  and  a  billion  trillion  songs!  Forty  per 
cent  decrease  in  twenty  years !  Let  us  have  peace ! 


Sparrows,  Finches,  Buntings  and 
Grosbeaks. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Fringillidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  They  have  very  short  bills  for  seed-eat- 
ing. Those  grouped  as  sparrows  vary  little  from  the  English  sparrow 
in  size  and  color.  Those  grouped  as  finches  vary  largely  as  to  size 
and  color.  The  grosbeaks  as  their  name  implies,  have  remarkably 
heavy  bills  and  the  bunting  group  are  sparrow  size  but  darker  in  color. 
The  finches  are  generally  good  singers  and  nest  low  either  in  the  grass 
or  in  bushes.  They  live  largely  on  the  seeds  of  noxious  weeds,  such  as 
thistle,  fox-tail  grass  and  sorrel  and  are  therefore  of  very  great  value  to 
gardeners  and  farmers.  Though  awkward  about  catching  insects,  they 
often  vary  their  bread  diet  with  a  little  meat. 

ENGLISH  SPARROW.  Passer  domesticus.  Six  inches  long.  Came 
to  America  in  1851.  Our  ever  present  street  gamin.  Too  well  known 
to  require  close  description.  Constantly  working  and  chirping.  Builds 
bulky  nests  in  awnings,  trees  or  any  old  place.  Male  has  black  upper 
breast  as  most  conspicuous  marking. 

560.  CHIPPING  SPARROW.  Spizella  socialis.  Called  also  the 
social  sparrow  but  he  is  less  sociable  in  the  west  than  in  the  east. 
Nearly  an  inch  smaller  than  the  English  sparrow  it  can  be  told  by  its 
chestnut  crown,  white  line  over  the  eye  and  dull  ash-colored  breast. 
Its  note  is  "Chip",  "Chip",  repeated  at  long  intervals.  Its  nest  is  al- 
ways lined  with  horse  hair  and  placed  higher  above  ground  than  that 
of  any  of  the  sparrows. 

563.  FIELD  SPARROW.  Spizella  pusilla.  About  a  half-inch  small- 
er than  the  English  sparrow.  Brown  above  with  chestnut  crown, 
white  below.  Wings  barred  with  white.  Bill  brownish-red.  Long 
tail.  Fond  of  fields  and  low  bushes.  Often  mistaken  for  the  chipping 
sparrow  which,  however,  has  a  black  bill. 

585.  FOX  SPARROW.  Passerella  iliaca.  Nine  inches  long.  Cin- 
namon color  on  back.  Darkest  on  wings  and  tail.  Grayish-white  be- 
neath. Two  white  wing-bars. 

581.      SONG   SPARROW.      Melospiza   melodia.     The   size   of   the 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  57 


English  sparrow.  Loves  the  small  busherby  the  roadside.  Dull  brown 
in  streaks  above.  Gray  with  dark  streaks  below.  Noticeable  black 
spot  on  upper  breast.  Special  tail  motion  in  flight.  Sweet  singer. 

540a.  VESPER  SPARROW.  Poocoetes  gramineus  confinis.  About 
the  size  of  its  English  cousin.  Brown  in  streaks  above.  White  with 
dark  streaks  below.  Shoulder  patches  pale  russet.  White  tail  feathers 
noticeable  in  flight  .  A  roadside  and  grass  bird.  Often  sings  in  its  up- 
ward flight.  Loves  the  roadside. 

558.  WHITE-THROATED  SPARROW.  Zenotrychia  alUcollis. 
Nearly  an  inch  longer  than  the  English  sparrow.  Generally  seen  in 
flocks  during  migration.  Top  of  head  with  two  black  stripes  separated 
by  a  white  oae.  Throat  noticeably  white.  White  wing-bars.  Called 
"Peabody  Bird"  from  its  song  "See,  see,  Peabody,  Peabody,  Pe'abody." 
Quite  common  in  early  spring. 

554.  WHITE-CROWNED  SPARROW.  Zenotrichia  leucophrys.  An 
inch  longer  than  the  English  sparrow.  Crown  not  white  but  with  sever- 
al black  and  white  stripes.  Resembles  its  white-throated  cousin  but 
is  without  the  white  throat. 

559a.  TREE  SPARROW.  Spizella  monticola  ochracea.  The  size 
of  the  English  sparrow.  Streaked  brown  above.  Dusky  white  below. 
Chestnut  patch  on  head.  Black  spot  on  center  of  breast.  Has  two 
white  wing-bars. 

546a.  GRASSHOPPER  SPARROW.  Ammodramus  savannarum 
bimaculatus.  Five  inches  long.  Called  grasshopper  sparrow  because 
its  song  resembles  the  buzzing  of  that  insect.  Perches  often  on  wire 
fences.  Brown  above  with  varied  sparrow-like  markings.  Drab  be- 
low. Top  of  head  rusty  black.  Sits  quite  erect  and  often  sings  from 
weed  stalks.  Does  not  often  fly  when  startled  but  hides. 

FINCHES. 

536.  LAPLAND  LONGSPUR.  Calcarius  Lapponicus.  Nearly  an 
inch  longer  than  the  English  sparrow.  Generally  seen  in  flocks.  Brown 
above  with  black  markings,  gray  bielow.  Given  their  name  because 
they  nest  so  far  north  and  because  their  hind  toe-nail  is  so  long.  Has 
white  wing-bars.  Sings  on  the  wing. 

567.  JUNCO.  Junco  hy emails.  The  size  of  the  English  sparrow. 
One  of  the  snow  birds.  Slate-colored  above.  Males  almost  black  on 
head  and  neck.  White  beneath.  A  winter  bird.  Seen  in  flocks. 

517.  PURPLE  FINCH.  Carpodacus  purpureus.  About  the  size 
of  the  English  sparrow.  Not  purple  except  on  head  but  raspberry  red. 
Brown  above.  Dull  white  below.  Usually  seen  in  flocks  as  a  winter 
visitant.  Tail  Indented. 

534.     SNOWFLAKE.    Passerina  nivalis.    AH  inch  longer  than  the 


58  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

English  sparrow.  Streaked  brown  above,  white  below.  Wings  white. 
Tail,  black  and  white.  Bill  yellowish.  Distinctly  a  snow  bird  and  lover 
of  the  storm.  Winter  visitant.  Usually  seen  in  flocks. 

529.  GOLDFINCH.  Astragalinus  tristis.  (Called  wild  canary 
and  thistle  bird.)  Length  five  inches.  Mostly  bright  yellow.  Head 
and  wings  of  male  black.  Flies  with  a  dipping  motion.  Fond  of 
thistles  and  sunflowers.  Nests  in  August. 

BUNTINGS. 

598.  INDIGO  BUNTING.  Cyanospiza  cyanea.  Six  inches  long. 
Size  of  English  sparrow  but  more  graceful  and  slender  body.  The 
color  of  indigo.  Female  brown  with  yellowish-brown  breast. 

605.  LARK  BUNTING.  Calamospiza  melanocorys.  About  the 
size  of  the  English  sparrow.  Entirely  black  except  on  wings  which 
have  white  patches.  Often  mistaken  for  bobolink  but  has  no  yellowish- 
white  hood  and  is  smaller.  Flies  a  short  distance  into  the  air  singing, 
then  almost  floats  to  a  perch. 

604.  DICKCISSEL.  Spiza  Americana.  The  size  of  the  English 
sparrow.  Often  seen  on  fences  and  telegraph  wires  with  tail  hanging. 
Pale  yellow  below  with  black  mark  on  upper  breast.  Brownish  above. 
Sings  a  great  deal. 

528.  REDPOLL.  Acanthis  linaria.  A  little  smaller  than  the 
English  sparrow.  Redpoll  means  redhead  but  the  redpoll  has  only 
a  reddish  head.  Grayish  breast  and  lower  back.  Black  chin.  White 
below.  Winter  birds  in  this  latitude  usually  seen  in  large  flocks. 

521.  AMERICAN  CROSSBILL.  Loxia  curvirostra  minor.  Eng- 
lish sparrow  size.  The  crossing  of  the  bill  is  a  sure  mark  of  identifica- 
tion. Throat  and  breast  reddish  and  wings  brown.  Fond  of  the  seeds 
of  the  pine  cones. 

587.  CHEWINK.  (Towhee.)  Pipilo  erythropthalmus.  Eight 
inches  long.  Black  above.  Breast  white.  Sides  chestnut.  Tail  feath- 
ers noticeably  white  in  flight.  Eyes  red.  Female  brown  where  male 
is  black. 

GROSBEAKS. 

595.  ROSE-BREASTED  GROSBEAK.  Zamelodia  ludoviciana. 
Eight  inches  long.  Male,  black  above.  Breast  rose-color  and  rose- 
color  under  wings.  White  markings  on  wings  and  tail,  very  notice- 
able in  flight.  Bill  strong  and  very  thick.  Excellent  singer. 

514a.  EVENING  GROSBEAK.  Coccothraustes  vespertinus  mon- 
tanus.  About  eight  inchies  long.  Greenish-yellow  is  the  principal 
color  especially  below.  Bright  yellow  forehead  and  above  the  eyes. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  59 

Wings   and   tail   nearly   black.      Bill   strong  and   very   thick.      White 
patches  on  wings  and  more  or  less  brownish  on  sides. 

593.  CARDINAL  GROSBEAK.  Cardinalis  cardinalis.  About 
nine  inches  long.  Cardinal  except  around  the  beak  which  is  black. 
Viery  thick  and  strong  beak.  Well  crested.  Rare  in  this  latitude. 

515a.  PINE  GROSBEAK.  Pinicola  enucleator  montana.  About 
eight  inches  long.  Red  with  brown  extremities.  Wings  tipped  with 
dull  white.  Has  a  strong  beak  which  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
grosbeaks. 

ENGLISH   SPARROW. 

He  does  not  require  six  months  in  which  to  establish  a  resi- 
dence, for  he  is  at  home  anywhere  and  everywhere.  If  he  should 
increase  as  rapidly  during  the  next  fifty  years  as  he  has  in  the 
last  ten  years  it  will  keep  him  busy  finding  a  place  to  roost.  He 
seems  to  have  unlimited  resources.  He  will  build  a  nest  in  a  little 
less  than  no  time  and  often  one  cock  sparrow  will  have  two  new  nests 
under  way  before  his  first  one  is  finished.  If  lady  sparrows  were 
hens  there  would  be  millions  in  the  poultry  business  for  they  are 
regular  little  sleight-of-wing  performers  when  it  comes  to  produc- 
ing eggs;  and  very  likely  they  could  produce  eggs  from  your  hat 
or  your  pockets  if  they  wanted  to. 

They  were  introduced  into  this  country  to  eat  the  worms  atd 
bugs  from  the  trees  in  eastern  parks.  They  have  done  their  work, 
and  done  it  well,  but  the  question  remains  unanswered  "What  can 
now  be  introduced  to  eat  the  sparrows  f"  The  remedy  seems  al- 
most as  bad  as  the  disease. 

You  cannot  help  admiring  this  little  disciple  of  Roosevelt, 
for,  first  of  all,  he  is  a  fighter  from  Scraptown  and  is  bound  to 
have  peace  if  he  has  to  fight  for  it.  He  will  kill  his  brother  in 
a  duel  and  he  will  fight  as  many  as  eight  others  at  a  single  time. 
Once  I  saw  a  little  sparrow  fight  his  shadow  through  a  window 
glass  until  his  face  swelled  up  so  that  his  eyes  were  nearly  shut. 
I  afterwards  heard  that  he  returned  every  day,  for  two  weeks  to 
renew  the  fight.  He  is  a  worker  from  Busyville  too.  Let  down 
an  awning  and  often  a  nest  with  eggs  will  tumble  out.  It  makes 
little  difference  to  them,  however,  for  work  will  begin  at  once  on 
another  nest.  They  will  build  in  trees,  barns,  vines,  in  a  deserted 
woodpecker's  hole,  in  a  hole  in  a  sandbank  and  in  a  multitude 
of  other  places.  They  have  no  fear  of  wind  nor  weather  and  dur- 


60  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

ing  the  coldest  days  of  winter  often  go  down  chimneys  to  spend 
the  night  and  keep  warm.  Possibly  you  may  have  seen  a  flock 
of  the  little  fellows  playing  in  the  snow  and  showing  evidence 
that  they  have  slept  the  night  before  in  the  coal  bin. 

He  is  against  race  suicide.  Different  forms  of  life  use  dif- 
ferent means  of  preserving  their  species.  Some  do  it  by  produc- 
ing a  multitude  of  young  of  which  many  survive  just  because 
their  enemies  cannot  kill  all  of  them;  some  regard  life  as  a  battle 
in  which  the  fittest  will  survive  and  therefore  they  prepare  to 
fight  their  way  through  it,  while  some  live  in  localities  not  in- 
habited by  their  natural  enemies.  Which  method  does  the  En- 
glish sparrow  use?  All  of  them  and  several  more  besides. 

Bird-lovers  concede  him  to  the  gunner  to  satisfy  the  love  of 
carnage,  that  element  of  savagery  still  left  to  man,  but  it  is  too 
bad  that  they  so  often  have  to  throw  the  blackbirds  to  the  tigers, 
too.  You  need  waste  no  sympathy  upon  the  sparrow,  however, 
for  he  can  take  care  of  himself  and  a  wife  or  two  and  a  dozen 
or  more  children  and  if  there  is  a  creature  on  earth  that  looks 
out  for  number  one  any  better  than  he  does,  you  would  do  well 
to  find  him.  He  hasn't  many  friends,  but  he  doesn't  care. 

CHIPPING   SPARROW. 

In  the  east  a  little  bird  used  to  come  regularly  to  the  door- 
step when  grandmother  shook  the  tablecloth  and  with  a  constant 
"Chip",  "Chip",  "Chip"  between  bites,  gathered  every  little 
crumb.  It  was  the  commonest  bird  of  all  until  its  English  cousin 
arrived.  It  is  a  far  less  common  bird  in  Dakota. 

It  gets  up  at  a  very  early  hour  and  sits  up  pretty  late  for  such 
a  little  bird  but  only  to  sing  its  song  over  and  over  again  for 
it  is  a  musical  little  fellow  and  often  wakes  up  in  the  night  and 
trills  a  dreamy  song  or  two. 

What  a  delicate  little  nest  it  builds!  And  it  always  lines  it 
with  horse-hair.  I  used  to  w^atch  them  come  to  the  wooden  hitch- 
ing posts  and  tug  at  the  hairs  that  had  been  pulled  out  of  the 
horses'  manes.  Some  of  them  came  pretty  hard  too,  but  they  had 
to  have  them. 

Every  little  bird  has  a  choice  of  material  for  its  home.  I 
have  never  seen  an  Arkansas  flycatcher's  nest  that  did  not  have 
white  wrapping  twine  in  it,  nor  a  kingbird's  without  cotton  or 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  61 

wool,  nor  a  phoebe  bird's  without  moss,  and  the  only  time  that 
the  great  crested  flycatcher's  nests  have  been  found  without 
cast-off  snake  skins  in  them,  they  had  onion  peels  and  fish  scales 
as  substitutes. 

Probably  there  are  no  more  indulgent  parents  than  chipping 
sparrows.  They  would  make  you  think  that  they  feed  each  other  if 
you  did  not  see  the  look  of  youth  upon  the  face  of  the  big  booby  bird 
who  opens  his  wide  mouth  to  receive  the  crumb  from  his  little 
mother,  and  when  she  flies  away  for  more,  he  tags  on  behind  to  be 
sure  of  getting  the  next  morsel  that  she  finds,  and  he  will  coax 
for  it  just  as  hard  as  a  real  boy  will  coax  for  a  piece  of  bread  and 
butter. 

Every  bird  has  a  certain  food  which  Nature  has  provided 
and  in  the  gathering  of  which  it  has  become  an  adept.  When 
you  first  ate  macaroni,  you  did  not  do  it  as  an  Italian  would;  you 
probably  made  a  mess  of  it.  So  when  a  chippie  eats  moths,  it  is 
in  strong  contrast  to  the  phoebe.  It  had  better  stick  to  seeds  and 
crumbs  if  it  cares  at  all  for  manners. 

The  nest  that  holds  the  four  dotted  blue  eggs  of  the  chippie 
is  built  very  often  in  apple  trees  which  are  pretty  high  for  spar- 
rows, and  chippie  is  the  only  sparrow  that  goes  to  the  trees  to 
build  his  home  and  it  is  usually  so  far  out  among  the  leaves  that 
it  is  hardly  visible,  but  the  lazy  cowbird  finds  it,  the  polygamous 
loafer. 

FOX  SPARROW. 

Arriving  at  the  Milwaukee  station  a  few  days  ago  to  meet 
a  train,  I  learned  that  it  was  twenty  minutes  late,  so  I  slipped 
across  the  track  to  the  island  to  see  and  hear.  At  once  I  heard 
the  drumming  of  a  hairy  woodpecker  who  had  found  a  very  re- 
sonant limb  and  he  was  sounding  his  love  tattoo  to  a  maiden  of 
his  kind  who  very  soon  came  fluttering  to  him.  I  saw  the  newly 
sprouting  gooseberry  bush  that  last  year  was  the  home  of  my 
yellow  warbler;  I  noted  that  the  redwinged  blackbird  had  not 
yet  returned  to  claim  the  little  circle  of  marsh  near  by.  A 
grackle  and  his  mate  spread  their  keel  tails  and  sailed  away  from 
me  with  a  murmur  of  disapproval.  A  flicker  watched  me  sus- 
spiciously  from  a  rotten  tree  and  countless  English  sparrows 
fluttered  busily  about.  Soon  a  bird  song  burst  upon  my  ear — a 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


sparrow  song  I  was  sure.  I  stood  in  silence  for  a  while  fearing 
to  take  a  chance  of  missing  it  by  intrusion.  Presently  I  glanced 
before  me  and  there  sat  a  beautiful  fox  sparrow.  We  looked 
each  other  over,  stared  deep  into  each  other's  eyes.  If  he  thought 
as  well  of  me  as  I  did  of  him,  he  has  been  thinking  of  me  almost 
ever  since.  He  was  the  singer  of  the  wonderful  song. 

Just  a  little  sparrow !  I  wonder  where  he  is  to-night  while  the 
snowy  blizzard  is  raging.  Poor  little  minstrel!  Tucked  away  in 
the  hole  of  a  fence  post?  Perhaps  he  turned  his  back  upon  the 
storm  and  on  swift  wing  is  riding  on  its  breast  to  southern  sunny 
fields.  Perhaps  bewildered  and  blinded  he  has  crushed  his  little 
life  out  against  the  tower  of  some  tall  building,  or  lies  with  broken 
wing  beneath  a  network  of  wires. 

"There  have  been  souls, 

Children  of  heavenly  song 

That  have  been  stayed  in  their  wild  dreamy  flight 

And  fallen  unseen,  unknown 

As  silently 

In  the  dark  night. 

Yet  someone  pities  them 

And  someone  loves 

Them  for  the  simple  tribute  that  they  bring 

To  Him  who  marketh 

E'en  the  sparrow's  fall 

On  broken  wing." 

He  is  less  sociable  than  most  of  the  social  sparrow  family, 
yet  he  was  in  company  with  a  flock  of  tree  sparrows  at  the  time  I 
saw  him.  I  fear  that  you  think  ill  of  the  sparrows  because  you 
are  so  familiar  with  the  little  gamin  of  the  streets  but  he  is 
quite  alone  in  his  unpopularity,  as  other  members  of  his  family 
are  entirely  respectable. 

I  wanted  to  see  the  little  fox  sparrow  get  down  upon  the 
ground  and  scratch  for  he  doesn't  do  it  as  other  birds  do  with  first 
one  foot  and  then  the  other  but  he  digs  in  with  both  at  once, 
really  gets  there  with  both  feet. 

He  is  called  also  the  foxy  finch,  not  that  he  possesses  any  un- 
usual shrewdness  but  just  because  he  is  the  color  of  the  red  fox. 
As  a  fact,  I  judge  from  the  meek  expression  of  his  face  that  he 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  63 

eould  easily  be  imposed  upon.  All  he  wants  is  to  be  left  alone 
while  he  helps  the  other  sparrows  to  keep  the  weeds  from  posses- 
sing the  earth. 

Just  as  I  was  about  to  start  him  from  his  perch,  his  mate 
came  flying  to  him  and  I  fear  that  she  whispered  something  about 
me  for  they  both  flew  hastily  away.  Then  the  whistle  blew. 

JUNCO. 

These  little  "birds  of  a  feather  flock  together"  and  are  rare- 
ly seen  except  in  flocks  for  they  go  farther  north  to  break  up  in- 
to pairs  for  their  nesting.  They  have  a  reputation  for  shyness, 
yet  they  flit  about  the  roadsides  flying  as  though  in  fright, 
in  and  out  of  the  brush  and  the  smaller  trees.  Many  birds 
like  the  meadow  lark,  the  vesper  sparrow  and  the  junco 
have  two  white  feathers  in  their  tails  that  are  not  visible 
except  in  flight  when  they  become  quite  conspicuous.  Did  you 
ever  hear  the  expression  "showing  the  white  feather"  meaning  to 
turn  your  back  and  "light  out"?  I  imagine  that  I  have  suggested 
to  you  the  origin  of  it. 

Especially  when  the  juncos  wear  their  little  black  cowl  they 
look  like  the  monks  and  nuns  of  bird  land  and  their  little  backs 
are  just  the  color  of  the  clouds  on  a  winter's  day  and  their 
breasts  the  color  of  the  snow. 

If  you  would  see  them,  you  must  look  closely  and  watch  for 
the  flash  of  their  white  feathers  as  they  flit  about  you  as  though 
you  were  a  human  hawk.  You  have  doubless  seen  thousands  of 
them  but  have  glanced  at  them  only  as  you  do  at  the  sparrow 
for  which  you  have  probably  mistaken  them. 

They  will  soon  take  wings  for  a  colder  clime,  to  Manitoba  or 
somewhere  across  the  Canadian  border  to  build  their  nests  around 
the  fallen  trees,  but  when  our  summer  friends,  our  fair  weather 
friends,  have  gone  to  their  sunny  winter  homes,  the  tireless  little 
juncos  will  come  to  us  again  to  spend  the  winter  and  gather 
the  weed  seeds  from  our  roadsides  and,  if  very  hungry,  even  the 
crumbs  from  our  doorsteps. 

The  notes  of  the  juncos  are  as  sweet  as  they  can  be.  They 
have  a  quality  like  that  of  the  bluebirds,  a  sort  of  far  away,  al- 
most ventriloqual  note  that  suggests  the  dreariness  of  the  winter 
and  early  springtime.  It  is  a  whistle,  a  trill  and  a  warble  that 


64  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

makes  you  feel  that  the  bird  is  singing  for  its  own  delight  and  not 
for  yours,  for  if  you  come  too  near,  the  bushes  will  soon  be  un- 
tenanted  and  the  music  stilled. 

INDIGO  BUNTING. 

There  are  fortunately  some  birds  that  require  only  to  be 
seen  to  be  identified.  The  indigo  bird  is  one  of  them.  You  would 
never  make  a  mistake  in  him,  but  his  mate  hasn't  an  indigo 
feather.  She's  done  in  sepia  and  is  an  indigo  bird  only  by  courte- 
sy. Her  husband  is  the  blue-feathered  aristocrat  and  he's  some- 
thing of  a  snob  too.  As  he  is  a  cousin  to  the  sparrows  that  are 
such  common  birds,  he  no  doubt  feels  that  he  is  the  swell  member 
of  the  family  and  looks  down  upon  his  relatives. 

Nearly  everyone  that  I  have  ever  seen  was  posing  upon  a 
telegraph  or  telephone  wire.  That  is  about  as  high  as  they  ever 
fly  and  that  is  higher  than  sparrows  generally  rise. 

The  male  is  a  rather  pretty  singer  but  disappointing.  He 
starts  out  with  his  song  as  though  he  were  going  to  make  the 
valleys  and  the  woodland  ring  with  his  rapid  warble  and  then 
it  frazzles  out  and  fades  away  and  you  feel  as  though  he  thought 
to  himself  "Oh,  what's  the  use  of  singing  to  common  people!" 
He  always  acts  about  his  singing  as  though  he  were  just  home 
from  conservatory  and  wanted  to  be  coaxed. 

Emerson  says  that  the  theory  of  compensation  runs  through 
everything  and  it  is  true  that  while  Nature  is  lavish  enough  with 
her  gifts  she  keeps  a  pretty  nice  balance  after  all.  The  birds 
of  brightest  plumage  are  rarely  those  of  sweetest  song.  Your 
flicker  with  his  fancy  vest  has  a  voice  like  an  auctioneer  and 
your  blue  jay  with  his  loud  clothes  has  a  gambler's  voice  as  well. 
The  wood  duck  is  probably  the  best  dressed  bird  in  the  country, 
but  he  has  a  poor  ear  and  a  poor  voice  for  music.  When  it  comes 
to  solo  work  with  its  tone  placing  and  phrasings  and  tremulos 
give  us  the  brown  thrasher  or  the  plain  gray  catbird  and  for 
choruses  give  us  the  blackbird. 

The  indigo  bird  seems  to  have  a  well  trained  voice. 

He  is  one  of  the  birds  that  make  you  feel  that  he  is  a  long 
way  from  home,  for  he  is  rare  in  Dakota  and  very  unlike  any 
others  of  our  birds.  He  really  shows  royal  tropical  colors  and  you 


RED-WINGED   BLACKBIRD 
(UPPER  FIGURE,  MALE;    LOWER  FIGURE,  FEMALE) 
Order— PASSERES  Family  — 

Genus— AGELAI  us  Species— PHCENICEUS 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  65 

would  almost  suspect  that  he  had  escaped  from  the  cage  of  the 
King  of  the  Isle  of  Spice. 

I  have  always  noticed  him  by  a  roadside  and  his  nest  is 
always  low  rather  than  high  up  in  the  branches,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  he  chooses  such  a  place  for  his  nest  because  his  worst 
enemies  are  the  birds  of  prey.  All  of  them  except  always  the  blue 
jay,  who  is  not  really  a  bird  of  prey,  but  only  a  degenerate,  spend 
their  time  and  build  their  nests  away  from  the  haunts  of  men. 
Thus  the  little  song  birds  frequent  the  thoroughfares.  If  we 
could  only  get  the  butcher-bird  to  move  to  town,  away  would  go 
the  English  sparrows.  However  he  comes  to  town  only  occasional- 
ly but  when  he  does  he  has  a  high  old  time  cleaning  up  the  spar- 
rows. 

CHEWINK. 

In  Connecticut  where  it  is  more  common  than  in  the  west, 
this  was  my  favorite  bird.  As  a  child  there  were  many  fancies 
that  clung  about  the  bird  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  "chewink" 
was  making  love  to  the  "towhee"  for  his  mate,  to  a  novice  is  an 
entirely  different  bird. 

Rarity  makes  almost  anything  a  prize  whether  it  be  diamonds, 
charity,  books,  sweetbreads  or  the  rara  avis. 

Last  summer  I  searched  a  long  time  for  a  nest.  The  birds 
betrayed  by  their  anxiety  that  it  was  near  and  it  is  a  wonder  that 
the  nest  and  its  eggs  were  not  crushed  for  it  was  on  the  ground 
among  the  dry  leaves  that  were  in  abundance  in  the  little  thick- 
et. In  fact  it  was  made  of  them.  If  it  had  been  stepped  upon, 
several  cowbird  eggs  would  have  disappeared  too,  for  the  little 
nest  was  packed  full  of  the  eggs  of  both  birds.  As  it  was,  the 
cowbird  eggs  disappeared  mysteriously  and  the  chewink  was  the 
gainer  by  my  visit. 

There  is  always  a  special  fascination  for  the  birds  among 
whom  the  females  are  wholly  different  from  the  males  as  is  the 
case  with  the  chewink,  the  indigo  bird,  the  grosbeak,  the  red- 
start, the  oriole,  the  goldfinch  and  most  of  our  very  conspicuous 
birds,  and  there  is  a  reason  or  an  instinct  in  nature  for  the  female 
to  be  less  conspicuous,  for  they  spend  so  much  time  upon  their 
nests  that  their  enemies  have  a  far  better  chance  to  detect  and 
secure  them. 

5 


66  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

If  the  man  behind  the  gun  had  been  a  part  of  nature's  plan 
I  have  no  doubt  that  all  birds  would  have  had  more  somber  colors. 
What  a  life  it  must  be  to  be  in  the  enemy's  country  all  the  time! 

By  the  way,  the  chewink  is  the  bird  that  Thomas  Jefferson 
discovered  upon  his  farm  and  became  so  much  interested  in. 
He  wrote  with  great  interest  to  the  scientists  of  his  time  about  it 
and  it  became  his  special  favorite. 

ROSE-BREASTED  GROSBEAK. 

In  a  little  while,  as  soon  as  the  buds  have  burst  upon  the 
maple  trees,  you  will  be  startled  at  the  song  of  the  grosbeak  which 
will  fall  upon  your  ear  with  an  amazing  sweetness.  You  will 
never  forget  the  day.  That  song  is  as  full  of  music  as  its  little 
heart  is  full  of  love. 

Follow  the  song  and  you  will  find  it  coming  from  one  of  the 
prettiest  birds  that  ever  spread  a  wing.  If  you  say  "Handsome 
is  that  handsome  does",  and  "Is  not  the  blue  jay  pretty  and 
pretty  bad  too?"  the  answer  is  "The  grosbeak  is  pretty  and  pretty 
good  too". 

As  he  sits  high  up  in  the  tree-top  trying  to  fill  the  world 
with  music,  he  looks  as  though  his  throat  had  burst  from  the  full- 
ness of  his  song  and  his  heart's  blood  had  stained  his  throbbing 
breast.  Not  so  with  his  modest  mate.  Never  a  red  feather  in 
her  trousseau,  just  a  brown  and  yellow  to  catch  her  fellow. 

As  though  it  were  not  enough  to  be  pretty  and  to  sing  sweet- 
ly, the  grosbeak  is  handy  about  the  house.  He  helps  make  up  the 
nest.  He  helps  to  get  dinner.  He  even  does  his  share  in  the 
nursery,  sitting  part  of  the  time  upon  the  eggs  or  singing  mamma 
and  babies  to  sleep  in  their  little  cradle  of  straw. 

Yes,  even  at  midnight  when  the  reflected  light  of  the  rounded 
moon  sheds  a  radiance  upon  his  cradled  loved  ones,  he  will  watch 
above  them  and  warble  to  the  night  the  echo  of  his  day-song.  If 
you  must  shoot  him,  shoot  him  then. 

He  has  been  called  the  potato-bug  bird  because  of  his  diet, 
however,  his  gross  beak  tells  us  that  he  cracks  nuts  and  seeds  for 
food  as  well. 

He  may  be  plentiful  in  some  localities  but  it  is  doubtful, 
for  millinery  "has  marked  him  for  her  own"  and  "Death  loves 
shjning  mark".  His  presence  in  gardens  creates  the  farmer's 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  67 

suspicion  but  lie  would  no  more  eat  his  filthy  garden  truck  than 
he  would  sing  rag-time. 

It  is  wrong  to  charge  too  much  against  the  milliners.  Let  it 
be  said  that  the  slaughter  of  birds  for  hats  is  ceasing,  but  the 
reports  of  the  National  association  show  that  it  has  not  wholly 
ceased.  It  will  cease  when  high-minded  women  refuse  to  wear 
as  badges  of  cruelty  the  nuptial  plumes  of  the  bride-grooms  of 
the  air. 

GOLDFINCH. 

They  say  that  all  blackberries  are  red  when  they  are  green, 
so  too,  many  members  of  the  blackbird  family  are  without  black 
plumage.  Neither  is  every  bird  a  yellowbird  that  is  yellow. 

You  should  have  no  trouble  in  knowing  the  goldfinch  when 
you  see  him  for  he  wears  a  golden  jacket  with  black  sleeves  and  a 
tiny  black  cap.  Little  Mrs.  Finch  goes  around  bareheaded  like 
all  the  girls  and  is  very  modest  in  her  dress. 

In  birdland  you  know,  the  boys  dress  better  than  the  girls. 
Domestication  seems  to  upset  every  thing.  And  why  shouldn't 
they  dress  better?  In  birdland  the  boys  are  always  the  ones 
that  propose  and  they  must  look  their  best  and  they  always  get 
a  nice  new  spring  suit  in  preparation  for  their  May  or  June  wed- 
dings. You  ask  if  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  girls  to  dress  prettily 
to  attract  them?  Oh,  no.  They  all  get  married  anyway.  There 
are  no  such  things  as  bachelors  and  old  maids  among  them.  Alas ! 
There  are  widows,  and  widowers  and  very  many  little  orphans 
because  boys  and  men  and  women  and  girls  are  not  all  dead  yet. 
It  is  not  a  part  of  Nature's  plan  by  any  means. 

You  will  find  goldfinches  in  flocks  except  during  the  short 
nesting  season,  for  they  are  regular  little  gypsies.  You  can 
never  tell  when  you  will  see  them,  the  little  nomads !  Last  Decem- 
ber a  flock  of  them  hung  around  Pierre  for  a  few  days  even  while 
the  snow  was  on  the  ground.  That  made  no  difference  for  they 
wallowed  in  it  or  clung  to  the  sides  of  weeds  to  gather  their 
favorite  seeds. 

They  are  the  greatest  little  bathers  you  ever  saw.  After  a 
rain,  sometime,  you  may  see  a  puddle  of  water  with  its  outer 
edge  just  trimmed  with  yellow  and  black  and  a  real  wreath  of 
spray  will  enclose  it.  They  will  come  and  go,  rising  and  dipping, 


68  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

dipping  and  rising  and  chirping  a  succession  of  sweet  little  notes 
all  tuned  to  your  ear  and  to  your  heart. 

They  brood  in  August.  Why?  Because  the  prickly  weeds 
don't  have  their  seeds  ready  for  the  goldfinch  babies  until  then. 
And  they  must  feed  them  on  thistle  seeds  and  they  must  line 
their  little  nests  with  thistle  down,  the  very  soul  and  spirit  of 
the  flowers. 


Swallows. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  llirundinidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Five  and  one-half  to  seven  and  one-half 
inches  long.  Wide  wing-spread.  Nearly  always  seen  on  the  wing. 
Live  in  colonies  and  twitter  rather  than  sing.  From  dark  gray  to 
purplish  black  above  with  breasts  from  white  to  buff. 

They  live  on  mosquitoes,  moths  and  insects  of  nearly  "all  varieties 
and  work  without  ceasing.  No  birds  can  be  of  more  value.  They 
are  real  pest-destroyers. 

613.  BARN  SWALLOW.  Hirundo  erythrogastra.  Six  and  one- 
half  inches  long.  Blue-black  above,  russet  beneah.  Large  wing- 
spread.  Forkied  tail.  Very  common.  Nests  in  barns  and  under 
bridges. 

611.  PURPLE  MARTIN.   (A  swallow.)  Progne  subis.     Seven  and 
one  half  inches  long.     Male  black  with  purple  luster.     Wings  longer 
than  tail.     Tail  forked.     Female  gray  beneath  and  faded  above.     Seen 
in  town  where  it  nests  in  boxes  or  under  cornices. 

612.  EAVES  SWALLOW.      (Cliff  Swallow.)     Petrochelidon  luni- 
frons.     Length  of  English  sparrow.     Wide  wing-spread.      Bluish-drab 
above.     An  inconspicuous  gray  crescent  about  the  neck.     Soiled  white 
beneath.     Best  identified  by  gourd-shaped,  mud  nests  built  under  the 
eaves  of  barns  or  on  the  sides  of  cliffs.     Tail  without  forks. 

616.  BANK  SWALLOW.  Riparia  riparia.  Somewhat  shorter 
than  the  English  sparrow.  Its  wide  wing-spread  makes  it  look  larger 
than  it  is.  Gray  above  shaded  to  brown.  Wliite  below.  Tail  not 
swallow-tailed.  Nests  in  holes  dug  in  sand  banks  and  railroad  cuts. 

614.  TREE  SWALLOW.  Tachycineta  Ucolor.  Nearly  English 
sparrow  length.  Wide  wing-spread.  Bluish-green  reflections  above, 
white  beneath.  Tail  slightly  forked.  Nests  in  hollow  trees  when  it 
can  and,  therefore,  is  rare  on  the  prairies. 

CHIMNEY  SWALLOW.  This  is  not  a  swallow  but  a  member  of 
the  swift  family. 


70  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

BARN  SWALLOW. 

"One  swallow  does  not  make  a  summer",  but  he  does  what 
he  can,  for  when  he  begins  his  "twittering  from  the  straw-built 
shed",  you  may  know  that  summer  is  in  the  making.  You  can 
tell  him  by  his  bluish  broadcloth  coat  with  its  swallow-tails  and 
his  russet  colored  velvet  vest  which  he  never  forgets  to  wear.  As 
usual  in  bird-land  the  ladies  are  more  quietly  dressed  than  their 
husbands,  so  I  am  not  describing  them  in  these  articles,  leav- 
ing you  to  judge  them  by  the  company  they  keep. 

The  first  thing  that  you  will  notice  about  the  barn  swallow 
will  be  his  poetry  oi  motion.  With  light  body  and  large  wing- 
spread,  he  can  dart  and  skim  and  circle  as  though  he  possessed  a 
magic  charm  that  battled  gravitation.  For  miles  he  will  circle 
about  you  as  you  drive  along  the  country  roads,  keeping  his 
mouth  wide  open  to  gather  in  the  ilies  that  gather  about  your 
horses.  Did  you  ever  see  them  as  they  glide  above  the  surface 
of  a  quiet  pond,  dipping  lightly  into  the  water  and  setting  in 
motion  the  ever  widening  circles?  There  is  no  prettier  sight. 

Whoever  called  this  little  flycatching  swallow  a  bird  of  evil 
omen  was  either  wise  or  foolish;  foolish  if  he  knew  no  better,  wise 
if  he  was  the  farmer  who  first  told  it  to  some  mischievous  boys  to 
keep  them  from  killing  his  swallows  for  they  are  birds  of  value 
to  the  farmer  and  add  much  fat  and  contentment  to  the  poor 
fly-bitten  cattle. 

Do  not  mistake  them  for  the  eaves  swallows  that  have  taken 
the  eaves  of  the  barn  for  the  settlement  of  their  colony  and  peek 
at  you  from  the  tiny  holes  in  their  gourd-shaped  nests  of  mud. 
You  must  go  inside  the  barn  or  out  under  the  shed  to  find  the 
feather-lined  home  of  the  barn  swallow.  Both  nests  are  made  of 
pellets  of  mud  mingled  with  straw,  but  the  barn  swallow  as  he 
lives  under  shelter  makes  no  roof  to  his  house.  You  can  hardly 
tell  by  looking  at  the  long,  thin-shelled,  lightly  spotted  eggs,  what 
kind  of  swallows  will  some  out  of  them,  they  are  so  nearly  alike, 
but  it  makes  little  difference  anyway.  They  will  catch  about  the 
same  number  of  mosquitos  for  you. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  71 

PURPLE   MARTIN— (A  SWALLOW.) 

As  you  are  walking  up  the  main  street  of  almost  any  town 
in  the  state,  your  ear  will  catch  the  conversation  of  a  little  colony 
of  martins.  "Every  interpretation  of  their  thought  is  a  melody. 
Their  household  words  are  songs." 

Glancing  upward  to  the  telephone  wire  you  will  very  likely 
see  them  perching  upon  it,  the  males  so  deep  a  purple  that  they 
are  almost  black. 

They  will  not  rest  there  long  for  they  spend  most  of  their 
time  upon  the  wing  and  if  you  will  watch  them  you  will  soon  see 
that  they  have  chosen  for  a  home  a  place  within  the  ridge  of  a 
store  building  which  they  enter  at  a  knot  hole  or  by  an  opening 
made  by  the  weather-warped  boards. 

There  was  a  time  when  a  little  birdhouse  placed  upon  a  pole 
would  bring  blue  birds  or  martins  to  you  in  numbers,  but  now 
the  English  sparrow  exercises  his  squatter  right,  and  while  either 
bird  can  whip  tne  sparrow,  he  doesn't  care  for  the  job  of  making 
that  his  exclusive  occupation,  so  he  moves  on  rather  than  be  con- 
stantly annoyed. 

The  purple  martin  is  one  of  the  birds  that  like  the  passenger 
pigeon  has  suffered  a  frightful  decrease  in  numbers  within  the 
last  decade.  The  birds  that  live  in  colonies  are  the  ones  that 
suffer  most. 

'  *  To  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone ' '  is  fascinating  and  to  many 
people  it  is  bliss  to  shoot  into  a  colony  of  birds  and  cover  the  ground 
with  the  dead  and  dying.  Now  and  then  a  fellow  will  do  it  but  he 
is  the  one  who  fishes  with  a  seine.  It  takes  only  half  as  many 
letters  to  spell  his  name  as  it  does  to  spell  martin. 

When  the  boll-weevil  scared  the  cotton  planters  until  they 
feared  that  the  cotton  plant  would  perish  from  the  earth,  the 
martin  was  one  of  the  birds  that  went  to  the  rescue,  for  like  all 
the  swallows  he  is  fond  of  flying  insects.  Probably  there  are  no 
birds  of  greater  value  than  those  of  the  swallow  family,  and  if 
any  man  feels  that  he  must  shoot  a  martin,  let  him  do  it  on  the 
wing  for  the  martin  is  sportsmanlike  enough  to  take  its  own  game 
that  way. 


72  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

BANK  SWALLOW. 

Perfect  little  darters  and  skimmers  through  the  air,  they 
seem  to  be  letting  the  wind  toss  them  about  and  play  with  them 
while  they  abandon  themselves  to  the  fun  of  it,  yet  they  are 
gathering  a  good  square  meal  of  flying  insects. 

They  have  learned  the  protective  value  of  digging  little  holes 
in  the  side  of  «a  sand  bank  where  hardly  anything  can  reach  them 
but  feathered  enemies  and  if  they  are  larger  than  the  swallows 
they  will  find  great  difficulty  in  entering  the  front  door  of  the 
little  cave-dweller's  home. 

The  inevitable  English  sparrows  make  good  use  of  these 
cyclone  cellars  in  bad  weather  and  often  make  their  winter  homes 
within  them.  At  the  remote  end  of  each  cave,  which  is  usually 
the  depth  of  an  arm 's  length,  they  place  a  bit  of  hay  and  swallow- 
like  line  the  nest  with  a  liberal  supply  of  feathers.  Their  eggs 
are  white,  very  thin  shelled  as  are  those  of  all  swallows,  and  the 
swallow  crop  is  a  pretty  sure  one. 

The  swallows  are  communistic  and  you  will  find  colonies  of 
them  in  railroad  cuts,  in  sand  banks  and  in  the  sides  of  cliffs. 
Certainly  he  has  the  best  of  the  others  of  his  kin  in  respect  of 
his  nesting  but  they  are  nearer  than  he  is  to  their  food  supply  for 
they  keep  closer  to  the  cattle  sheds,  but  what  to  a  swallow  is  the 
flight  of  a  mile  ? 

If  science  were  to  give  medals  to  the  birds  that  live 
"For  the  heaven  that  smiles  above  them 
And  the  good  that  they  can  do" 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  little  swallows  would  each  wear  a  gold 
medal  about  his  pretty  throat.  The  boll-weevil,  the  dreaded 
stegomyia  and  others  of  his  like  find  in  the  swallows  their  im- 
placable foes.  Already  the  cry  has  come  from  the  south  "Save 
the  swallows. 


Waxwings. 

Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Ampelidae. 


619.  CEDAR  WAXWING.  Ampelis  cedrorum.  Length  seven 
inches.  Brown  above.  Crested.  Breast  yellowish-brown.  Red  spots 
on  wings  resembling  wax.  Black  band  separating  hat  from  jacket.  Yel- 
low band  across  end  of  tail  feathers. 

CEDAR  WAXWING. 

Very  much  of  a  globe-trotter  is  this  very  pretty  bird  with 
his  brown  panne- velvet  jacket  and  crested  hat  to  match.  The 
most  sociable  of  birds,  he  travels  in  such  large  flocks  that  the 
supply  of  worms,  bugs  and  berries  upon  which  he  feeds  is  soon 
exhausted  in  a  given  neighborhood,  when  he  moves  on.  He  is 
of  an  exclusive  family,  only  three  varieties  having  been  found, 
two  in  America,  the  third  in  Japan  and  they  look  more  like  Jap- 
anese than  they  do  like  American  birds.  The  name  is  given  them 
because  their  wings  have  small  red  spots  that  look  as  though 
melted  wax  had  been  dropped  upon  them. 

They  have  society  appetities  and  perfect  table  manners  and 
when  you  see  a  dozen  of  them  sitting  upon  a  limb  do  not  be 
surprised  if  another  should  suddenly  arrive  and  taking  his  place 
quietly  at  the  end  of  the  limb,  offer  a  choice  worm  to  his  nearest 
friend  with  a  soft  remark  in  an  undertone.  You  will  probably 
not  understand  the  remark  but  doubtless  it  was  "  After  you, 
Alphonse",  or  something  of  the  kind.  Then  Alphonse  will  pass 
it  along  to  Gaston  and  Gaston  to  Leon  and  so  on,  until  it  has  been 
passed  to  the  end  of  the  table  and  returned,  when  it  is  very  daintily 
eaten  by  the  original  giver.  They  are  so  fond  of  juniper  berries 
even  in  a  state  of  decomposition  that  there  is  a  suspicion  that 
they  like  an  after-dinner  cordial. 

When  you  see  the  top  of  a  tree  just  loaded  with  them,  you  will 
find  here  and  there  a  lonely  outpost  in  adjoining  trees  and  if 
there  is  cause  for  alarm,  the  colony  will  rise  and  adjourn  in  cir- 
cling flight  to  a  place  of  greater  safety. 


74  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

As  they  are  so  fond  of  evergreen  trees,  they  are  not  of  wide 
distribution  and  are  not  generally  regarded  as  common  in  this 
section,  but,  in  fact,  there  are  very  many  of  them  as  you  will  find 
out  after  identifying  your  first  one. 

They  nest  late  in  the  year,  probably  because  they  wait  till 
the  berries  are  ripe,  as  it  must  be  quite  a  job  for  waxwings  to 
feed  their  young  and  they  certainly  must  hate  to  take  a  chance 
of  soiling  their  pretty  clothes  by  doing  such  work.  Their  nests 
are  not  very  well  made  and  into  all  that  I  have  ever  seen  they  had 
woven  some  white  wrapping  twine.  During  the  period  of  nest- 
ing they  are  very  lonesome  and  spend  much  of  the  time  billing 
and  kissing  each  other. 


Shrikes, 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Laniidae. 


621.  NORTHERN  SHRIKE.     Lanius   borealis.  Robin     size     and 
larger  than  its  relative,  the  loggerhead.     Slate  color  above  and  light 
slate  color  beneath.     Wings  and  tail  black  with  a  fiew  white  feathers. 
Black   patch   runs   horizontally   backward   from   bill   beyond   the   eye. 
Slightly  curved  beak. 

622.  LOGGERHEAD  SHRIKE.     Lanius  ludovicianus.    Nine  inches 
long.     Bird  mostly  gray  except  wings,  tail  and  cheeks,  which  are  black. 
White  feathers  in  tail.     Bill  hooked.     Very  common  in  Black  Hills. 

LOGGERHEAD  SHRIKE. 

Sitting  on  his  lookout,  the  dead  limb  of  a  tree  that  overlooks 
an  open  space  where  the  smallest  birds  have  their  feeding  grounds, 
there  is  a  cannibalistic  villian  waiting  and  silently  plotting  a 
multitude  of  crimes.  Presently  you  will  see  him  swoop  down 
upon  them  and  such  a  scattering  you  never  saw  in  your  life.  No 
human  beings  ever  fled  before  a  cyclone  with  greater  fear  than 
do  the  little  birds  at  the  approach  of  this  outlaw,  for  some  one  of 
them  loses  its  life  and  its  body  is  borne  in  the  butcher's  beak  and 
hung  upon  a  thorn  or  upon  the  barb  of  a  wire  fence  as  a  butcher 
hangs  his  beef. 

I  have  seen  that  easy  downward  glide  with  hardly  the  move- 
ment of  a  wing  and  with  the  speed  of  a  ski-jumper  at  the  foot 
of  his  slide,  and  it  seemed  hardly  possible  that  it  ended  in  mur- 
der for  it  was  the  very  poetry  of  motion. 

Have  you  not  seen  little  birds  hanging  on  a  barb?  Perhaps 
you  have  seen  the  little  gopher  dangling  from  a  wire  fence  and 
thought  that  the  small  boy  had  put  him  there.  No,  it  was  the 
loggerhead  shrike.  And  why  does  he  hang  them  there?  Because 
he  kills  many  times  as  much  as  he  can  eat.  He  just  hungers 
and  thirsts  for  bird  blood. 


76  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

Why  is  it,  do  you  think,  that  a  bird  like  the  shrike,  that  can 
kill  almost  anything  that  flies,  if  it  is  not  so  very  much  bigger 
than  he  is,  that  lays  four  eggs  or  more  and  builds  his  nest  out  of 
reach  of  snakes,  still  remains  a  rare  bird?  It  must  have  an 
enemy  somewhere.  While  in  the  country  last  summer  I  came 
upon  a  shrike's  nest  and  its  four  eggs  were  broken  as  though  a 
tiny  bill  had  just  tapped  them.  Can  it  be  possible  that  the  smaller 
birds  thus  keep  down  their  enemies?  What  a  daring  deed  for  a 
little  bird!  He  was  the  David  of  his  race. 

There  is  just  one  use  to  which  this  bird  could  be  put.  If 
he  would  come  to  town  and  kill  English  sparrows,  he  would  be 
worth  while,  not  that  the  killing  of  sparrows  is  to  be  especially 
commended,  but  we  can  spare  them  best  and  they  are  like  the  Chi- 
nese ;  the  loss  of  a  few  of  them  would  not  put  the  race  in  danger 
of  extermination. 


Vireos. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,   Vireonidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Mostly  heard  from  the  foliage  of  trees 
where  they  feed.  Though  common,  they  are  rarely  seen.  Small  birds 
about  the  size  of  sparrows,  but  more  suggestive  of  the  warblers.  Their 
plumage  is  a  combination  of  yellow,  drab,  gray  and  white.  They  live 
almost  entirely  on  bugs  and  insects  which  they  find  on  trees. 

624.  RED-EYED  VIREO.  Vireo  olivaceus.  Slightly  longer  than 
the  English  sparrow.  Called  "Teacher"  because  of  its  song.  Light 
olivie  above,  white  below.  Long,  white  mark  over  its  eyes.  Keeps  well 
in  hiding  among  the  tree-leaves.  Eyes  red.  Points  light  yellow. 

627.  WARBLING  VIREO.  Vireo  Gilvus.  Nearly  an  Inch  shorter 
than  the  English  sparrow.  Habits  similar  to  those  of  the  red-eyed 
vireo.  Olivie-gray  above,  yellowish-white  below.  Sides  of  breast  and 
shoulders  pale  yellow.  White  line  through  the  eye. 

626.  PHILADELPHIA  VIREO.  Vireo  PHiladelphicus.  Over  an 
inch  shorter  than  the  English  sparrow.  Olive  above,  lighter  on  crown. 
Yellow  below.  White  line  over  the  eye. 

631.  WHITE-EYED  VIREO.  Vireo  noveboracensis.  Nearly  an 
inch  shorter  than  the  English  sparrow.  Olive  above,  white  below. 
Sides  yellowish.  White  wing-bars.  A  yellow  line  around  its  white 
eytes  identify  it. 


Warblers. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Mniotiltidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Smaller  than  English  sparrow.  So-called 
wild  canary  is  a  type.  Color  yellow  and  olive  as  a  rule.  Restless  and 
active. 

They  live  mainly  on  small  insects  which  they  find  on  trees  and 
shrubs  and  on  the  seeds  of  noxious  weeds. 

652.  YELLOW  WARBLER.  Dendroica  aestiva.  Five  inches  long. 
Light  olive  above.  Light  yellow  beneath.  Wings  and  tail  darker  and 
edged  with  brown. 

655.  MYRTLE  WARBLER.  Dendroica  coronata.  A  little  shorter 
than  the  English  sparrow.  Blue  back.  White  throat.  More  or  less 
black  streaks  on  otherwise  dull  white  breast.  Distinguishing  marks 
are  yellow  patches  on  head,  each  side  of  breast  and  lower  back.  Wings 
lightly  barred  with  white. 

687.  REDSTART.  Setophaga  ruticilla.  The  size  of  the  yellow- 
bird.  Mostly  black  above.  Breast  white  and  orange.  Tail  orange 
and  black.  Female  lemon  color  where  male  is  orange. 

6  8  la.  NORTHERN  YELLOWTHROAT.  Geothylpis  trichas  occiden- 
talis.  Five  inches  long.  Olive  green  above.  Yellow  beneath,  deepest 
on  throat.  With  a  black  mask. 

662.  BLACKBURNIAN  WARBLER.  Dendroica  BlacTcburniae. 
Warbler  size.  Throat  orangie.  Head  orange  and  black,  yellow  and 
white  beneath.  Points  black  with  some  white. 

654.  BLACK-THROATED  BLUE  WARBLER.  Dendroica  caeru- 
lescens.  Warbler  size.  Throat  black,  white  beneath.  Slaty-blue  above. 
White  spots  on  wings  and  tail. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 79 

648.  PARULA  WARBLER.  Compsothylpis  Americana.  Warbler 
size.  Slaty-blue  above  with  a  light  olivie  patch  on  the  back.  Yellow 
below  growing  lighter  towards  tail.  Wings  have  white  spots. 

673.  PRAIRIE  WARBLER.     Dendroica  discolor.     Warbler  size. 
Olive  above,  spotted  with  red.     Yellow  beneath.     Wings  barred  with 
yellow.     Sides  black,  starting  from  eye. 

636.  BLACK  AND  WHITE  CREEPING  WARBLER.  Mniotilta 
varia.  Warbler  size.  Black  and  white  stripes  above.  White  ieye-ring. 
Black  and  white  stripes  beneath.  Points  faded  black.  Creeps  about 
trees  much  as  woodpeckers  do. 

674.  OVENBIRD.     Seiurus  aurocapillus.     See  thrushes.     Actually 
a  warbler,  but  resembles  thrushes  more. 

661.  BLACK  POLL  WARBLER.  Dendroica  striata.  Warbler 
size.  Black  crown.  Olive  and  black  above,  lighter  towards  tail.  White 
with  black  stripes  below. 

YELLOW  WARBLER. 

If  you  see  a  bird  a  little  smaller  than  the  English  sparrow, 
trimmer,  neater  and  better  dressed,  with  olive  coat  and  yellow 
vest,  no  matter  what  stripes,  dots,  collars  and  neckties  he  may 
wear,  you  are  quite  safe  in  calling  it  a  warbler. 

Sparrow,  swallow,  finch,  thrush  and  many  other  names  are 
like  Smith,  Jones,  Brown  and  Robinson,  the  names  of  families, 
and  to  merely  call  a  bird  a  warbler  is  not  enough  to  mark  him. 

The  month  of  May  is  the  warbler's  month  and  so  is  Septem- 
ber, for  in  those  months  we  see  most  of  them  in  migration.  Active 
and  nervous  little  birds,  they  flit  about  the  tips  of  the  branches 
up-side-down  or  down-side-up,  restlessly  searching  for  the  tiny 
eggs,  bugs  or  seeds  upon  which  they  live. 

A  good  type  is  the  yellow  warbler,  the  sprite  that  many  of 
you  know  as  the  wild  canary.  It  is  a  dear  little  bird  and  I  will 
tell  you  some  of  its  good  qualities.  It  is  pretty,  industrious  and 
domestic.  It  sings  sweetly,  builds  skillfully  and  makes  the 
world  better  for  having  lived.  What  more  could  you  ask  of  a 
little  bird? 

All  birds  have  strong  likes  and  dislikes.  Each  tree-nesting 
bird  has  its  favorite  tree.  The  waxwing  loves  the  cedar ;  the  cross- 
bill, the  pine;  the  flicker,  the  chestnut  or  the  apple  in  the  east, 
the  cottonwood  in  the  west;  the  oriole  loves  the  elm;  the  yellow 
warbler,  well,  it  likes  the  one  that  the  Irishman  wanted  to  be 


80 BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

hanged  upon  when  given  his  choice  of  trees,  the  gooseberry  bush. 
Its  second  choice  is  the  willow. 

I  will  tell  you  of  a  very  clever  act  of  the  yellow  warbler,  leav- 
ing it  to  Burroughs  and  to  Seton  whether  it  is  an  act  of  reason 
or  of  instinct.  When  the  parasitic  cowbird  lays  its  egg  in  a  yellow 
warbler's  nest,  the  warbler  builds  a  false  bottom  over  it  and  runs 
the  side  walls  up  so  as  to  make  a  second  nest  above  for  its  own 
egg,  thus  refusing  to  make  its  home  an  asylum  for  cowbirds. 

It  is»a  wonderful  nest  that  it  builds  and  must  be  seen  to  be 
appreciated.  It  is  made  of  the  silver-colored  fiber  of  plants,  the 
silk  of  caterpillars,  tiny  bits  of  wool  and  fern  down.  What  a 
warm  little  nest  it  must  be!  The  yellow  warbler  raises  but  one 
family  a  year  and  it  must  do  it  very  carefully. 

MYRTLE  WARBLER. 

It  is  always  a  pleasure  to  find  one  of  the  warblers,  especially 
one  that  is  new  to  us.  The  myrtle  warbler,  however,  is  one  of  our 
commonest  visitants  but  is  always  of  interest  to  a  bird-lover. 
They  never  reveal  themselves  to  you  at  a  single  glance  for  they 
are  so  very  restless  that  there  is  ever  something  new  for  you, 
though  you  have  known  them  for  years. 

A  flock  of  at  least  a  dozen  of  the  myrtle  birds  spent  a  morn- 
ing in  one  of  my  trees  where,  a  few  days  before,  the  kinglets 
made  merry  with  the  bugs.  They  were  very  familiar,  probably 
because  they  were  finding  a  royal  feast. 

It  is  too  bad  that  some  of  our  warblers  cannot  be  renamed. 
The  redstart  for  example  has  a  German  name  that  means  "red- 
tail"  but  redstarts  do  not  have  red  tails.  They  are  either  or- 
ange or  lemon.  Probably  they  were  called  that  for  the  same  rea- 
son that  a  grove  (lucus)  in  Latin  was  named  from  the  Latin 
word  lux,  meaning  light,  because  there  is  little  light  in  a  grove. 

The  Blackburnian  warbler,  that  pretty  little  bunch  of  flame, 
was  named  after  Blackburn,  whoever  he  was.  Very  likely  he  was 
the  first  man  to  kill  one. 

The  worm-eating  warbler  has  a  repulsive  name  and  it  means 
little  more  than  to  speak  of  the  seed-eating  sparrow  or  an  insect- 
eating  flycatcher. 

The  myrtle  warbler  is  said  to  eat  the  berries  of  the  myrtle, 
hence  his  name.  Though  a  very  small  part  of  Ms  diet  is  myrtle 


fr&y 


ROSE-BREASTED  GROSBEAK 
(UPPER  FIGURE,  MALE:  LOWER  FIGURE,  FEMALE) 

Order— PASSERES  Family — FRINGILLID/E 

GAnus— ZAMELODIA  Species  — LUDOVICIANA 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  81 

berries,  yet  the  name  is  a  very  pretty  one  and  far  better  than  most 
Af  them. 

If  you  wish  to  see  the  warblers  you  may  begin  your  search, 
for  May  is  their  month  and  most  of  them  will  be  gone  ere  long 
across  the  Canadian  border.  Look  for  them  busily  engaged  in 
the  small  branches  of  the  trees  and  shrubs,  looking  for  tiny  in- 
sects and  their  eggs.  No  birds  are  as  well  groomed.  They  are 
clean  and  neat  all  the  time  with  every  feather  in  place  upon 
their  snug  little  bodies.  Of  their  economic  and  aesthetic  value 
there  can  be  no  doubt  and  when  it  comes  to  music — why,  they  are 
warblers. 

REDSTART. 

This  is  one  of  the  dearest  little  birds  and  he  dresses  like  a  little 
child  when  he  is  going  to  speak  a  piece  and  he  is  just  as  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  he  holds  the  center  of  the  stage.  You  can  ap- 
proach him  very  closely  when  he  will  spread  out  his  tiny  wings,  nut- 
ter them  a  second  and  then  dart  out  into  the  air  to  turn  a  somer- 
sault for  you.  Sailing  back  to  his  perch  he  will  glance  at  you 
as  much  as  to  say  "How  is  that  for  high?"  Again  and  again  he 
will  repeat  the  performance,  snapping  up  a  tiny  fly  each  time 
very  much  as  the  fly-cathers  do. 

The  man  who  named  him  was  color-blind  if  he  really  meant 
what  he  said,  for  redstart  means  redtail  and  that  is  precisely 
what  the  little  bird  has  not.  Yet  these  homely  names  given  to  the 
birds,  though  they  are  so  often  wrong  give  them  a  touch  of 
familiarity  that  their  Latin  names  do  not.  For  example  ' '  Setophaga 
ruticilla"  doesn't  mean  as  much  to  us  as  redstart. 

No  doubt  the  little  fellow's  tail  should  receive  recognition, 
not  because  of  its  color,  but  because  he  is  so  proud  of  it.  He  will 
spread  it  out  like  a  fan  and  show  as  much  pride  in  it  as  a  woman 
in  the  train  of  her  party  gown.  You  will  recognize  him  at  once 
as  a  warbler  but  you  may  well  depend  upon  his  somersault  as 
the  surest  means  of  identification. 

I  wonder  if  anyone  lives  who  can  identify  all  the  warblers 
at  a  glance?  I  should  like  to  see  his  picture. 


82  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

NORTHERN  YELLOWTHROAT. 

The  greatest  pleasure  that  comes  from  bird  study  is  the  con- 
stant surprise  that  awaits  you.  I  was  once  studying  a  cat  bird 
that  evidently  thought  that  I  was  on  forbidden  ground  and  was 
doing  his  best  to  frighten  me  away,  when  I  literally  felt  the 
presence  of  a  then  invisible  spectator.  Presently  I  glanced  down 
at  the  root  of  the  willowy  underbrush  before  me  and  saw  a  pair 
of  bright  eyes  no  bigger  than  tiny  beads  fastened  upon  me.  I 
had  never  seen  the  little  bird  before  and  it  seemed  at  first  as 
though  he  were  a  little  outlaw,  for  across  his  eyes  he  wore  a 
black  mask,  which,  however,  did  not  conceal  his  look  of  suspi- 
cion. He  was  only  a  little  detective,  hiding  there  to  see  what  I 
was  doing.  As  soon  as  he  saw  that  I  had  discovered  him,  he  darted 
away,  but  not  very  far,  so  I  followed  him,  only  to  find  that  he 
was  leading  me  by  easy  stages  away  from  his  sphere  of  living. 
After  I  had  made  my  notes  of  his  personal  appearance  I  retired, 
thinking  that  perhaps  he  would  cease  his  orders  for  me  to  ''quit* 
quit!  quit!"  and  would  give  vent  to  his  joy  at  my  departure.  I 
was  soon  rewarded  by  his  joyous  song,  "Witchity,  witchity, 
witchity,"  which  is  now  all  that  I  need  to  hear,  that  I  may  know 
that  there  is  a  northern  yellowthroat  nearby.  Either  his  little 
black  mask  or  his  buoyant  song  will  serve  to  tell  him  from  the 
large  family  of  warblers  that  come  north  during  the  month  of 
May.  I  think  it  is  always  hard  for  a  beginner  to  tell  the  warblers 
apart  and  the  sparrows,  too.  There  are  so  many  kinds  and  they 
are  all  so  much  alike.  It  is  nearly  always  easy  to  say  "That  is 
a  warbler"  or  "That  is  a  sparrow,"  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  tell 
just  which  sparrow  or  warbler  it  is.  You  will  know  the  yellow- 
throat  at  once,  for  he  has  all  the  delicacy  and  refinement  of  the 
warbler  family.  He  is  neat  and  aristocratic,  active,  mostly  yellow 
and  wholly  lovable.  The  sparrows  are  usually  quite  plain,  com- 
mon and  democratic  and  just  as  lovable,  excepting  always,  our 
English  cousins,  the  little  tyrants. 

The  northern  yellowthroat^  is  the  little  bird  that,  in  the  east 
where  the  skunk  cabbage  grows,  actually  builds  his  nest  in  the 
very  heart  of  it,  for  its  enemies  would  hardly  care  to  approach 
that  horrid  weed.  Some  have  claimed  that  the  yellowthroat  can- 
not smell,  but  it  is  safer,  I  think,  to  say  that  the  very  alert  little 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 


83 


fellow  has  an  extra  sense  rather  than  one  less  than  the  other 
birds.  He  knows  the  value  of  good  protection  and  he  knows  that 
one  can  get  used  to  almost  anything.  His  other  name  is  the  black- 
masked  ground  warbler — an  awfully  big  name  for  such  a  little 
bird. 


Mockingbirds. 


Order,  Passer es. 
Family,  Miminae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Long  tailed,  slender,  graceful  birds,  a 
little  smaller  than  a  robin.  Excellent  mimics  of  other  birds.  Bush- 
nesters.  They  eat, worms  and  insects  and  aside  from  being  a  delight 
to  th?e  eye  and  ear,  they  are  of  great  value  to  the  horticulturalist. 

703a.  MOCKING  BIRD.  Mimus  polyglottos  leucopterus.  Nine 
and  one-half  inches  long.  Robin  ten  inches.  Drab  above,  light  drab 
below.  Irregularly  marked  with  brown  and  white.  Best  identified 
by  its  song  which  is  imitative  of  all  birds. 

705.  BROWN  THRASHER.  Toxostoma  rufum.  About  the  size 
of  the  robin  but  tail  longer  by  an  inch.  Bright  cinnamon  color  above. 
Breast  white  with  many  brown  arrow-shaped  spots.  Eyes  yellow. 

704.  CATBIRD.  Galeoscoptes  carolinensis.  Nine  inches  long. 
Very  gray  bird.  Top  of  head  black.  Chestnut  feathers  under  tail. 

BROWN  THRASHER. 

The  only  bird  that  I  have  ever  placed  in  captivity  was  a 
brown  thrasher.  He  had  never  done  me  wrong,  nor  had  he 
wronged  another,  for  I  took  him  from  his  mother's  nest  against 
her  protest,  which  although  in  bird  language  was  perfectly  intel- 
ligible. I  imprisoned  him  because  he  was  pretty  and  would  sing. 
When  he  sang  his  first  song,  I  was  surprised  at  the  sorrowful 
strain.  It  was  not  like  the  song  of  the  wild  bird  which  is  the  very 
ecstasy  of  music.  In  a  short  time  he  became  so  gentle  that  I  let 
him  out  of  his  cage  and  at  night  he  always  returned  to  his  perch 
for  sleep.  He  often  sang  in  his  sleep,  dreaming  no  doubt  that  he 
was  free.  Finally  I  ventured  to  hang  the  cage  out  of  doors  so 
that  he  might  have  a  little  more  of  freedom.  For  a  while  he 
returned  to  his  cage  at  night  but  at  last  he  took  wings.  I  feared 
that  he  had  met  the  enemy  and  was  theirs,  for  many  a  cat  had 
looked  at  him  with  a  long,  lingering  look.  The  following  spring 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  85 

a  brown  thrasher  came  to  my  doorstep  and  ate  some  egg  crumbs 
that  I  threw  to  him.     I  believe  it  was  Dick. 

The  mocking-bird,  the  cat  bird  and  the  brown  thrasher  are  the 
birds  that  give  us  the  greatest  variety  of  songs,  but  they  are  very 
shy  and  keep  a  distance  from  the  abodes  of  men.  If  man  were 
gentler  with  them,  they  would  soon  trust  him.  Birds  are  not 
afraid  of  horses  and  cows.  You  may  <ride  a  horse  almost  into  a 
flock  of  geese,  the  wariest  of  birds.  I  once  saw  a  humming  bird 
take  nectar  from  the  flowers  in  the  hand  of  a  friend. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  wrong  to  keep  canary  birds  in  cages.    They 
have   been   reared   in   captivity   and   like   Byron's    prisoner    of 
Chillon  may  have  lost  the  love  of  liberty.     Perhaps  to  them 
"  Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make 

Nor  iron  bars  a  cell — " 
for  their  song  seems  as  buoyant  as  you  could  wish. 

The  four  pretty  finely  dotted  brown  eggs  in  the  nest  nicely 
wrought  of  roots,  grass  and  fibre  is  a  mighty  tempting  thing  to 
leave  alone  and  the  sparkling  yellow  eye  o*f  the  frightened  mother 
as  you  come  upon  her  will  help  you  on  your  way.  Then  they  will 
have  a  chance  to  go  on  digging  for  worms  in  your  garden  or  your 
lawn.  They  will  charge  you  nothing  for  their  services  for  the 
only  bill  that  they  present  they  use  for  digging. 

CATBIRD. 

Some  men  go  through  the  world  on  the  theory  that  it  is  al- 
ways best  to  avoid  trouble  either  by  never  troubling  trouble 
till  trouble  troubles  them,  or  by  keeping  so  far  in  the  background 
that  they  are  seldom  seen,  and  some  fight  their  way  through  the 
world  along  the  line  of  greatest  resistance  or  try  to  make  good  by 
running  a  bluff.  It  is  just  the  same  with  birds.  Our  catbird  is 
not  much  afraid  of  snakes  for  her  nest  is  not  on  the  ground.  She 
is  afraid  mostly  of  other  birds  and  thinks  that  a  good  cold  bluff 
is  her  best  resource.  When  an  enemy  approaches  she  will  imitate 
a  cat  as  well  as  she  can  by  ruffling  up  her  maltese  feathers  to  make 
herself  look  as  large  as  possible  and  letting  out  a  series  of  cat-calls. 

Tabby  probably  learned  to  hiss  from  hearing  a  snake  and  if 
you  should  see  a  wild  goose  raise  its  long  neck  above  the  rushes 
near  the  edge  of  a  pond  and  hear  the  hissings  that  it  will  make  at 
you,  you  would  be  doing  well  if  you  did  not  feel  that  creepy 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


sensation  that  possesses  you  when  you  just  miss  stepping  on  a 
snake. 

The  catbird  is  not  generally  liked  because  it  is  far  easier  in 
this  world  to  notice  bad  qualities  than  good  ones.  Some  one  has 
called  him  the  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde  among  birds.  Surely 
there  is  no  neater,  trimmer  or  more  graceful  bird  while  he  is 
singing  one  of  the  sweetest  of  bird  songs,  but  when  he  flattens  him- 
self out  in  fear  or  anger  and  ruffles  up  his  feathers  and  hisses 
his  resentment  at  you  he  is  very  far  from  being  a  beauty. 

If  ever  a  bird  lays  a  pretty  egg  it  is  the  lady  catbird.  It 
is  an  intense  green  and  four  of  them  are  laid  in  a  neat  nest  made 
of  fine  roots  and  trimmed  on  the  outside  with  little  strips  of 
grapevine  bark.  As  the  material  indicates,  it  will  be  found  most 
often  near  swamps  or  on  the  edge  of  ponds  and  rivers. 

He  is  the  American  mockingbird  unless  the  brown  thrasher 
has  won  the  honor.  The  votes  are  not  all  counted  yet.  I  am  al- 
most tempted  to  call  him  my  favorite  bird,  for  while  he  is  called 
the  "Mr.  Hyde"  of  bird  life  he  is  not  really  so.  He  assumes 
that  part  only  to  make  his  enemies  think  that  he  is  tough  and  that 
they  had  better  move  on.  As  soon  as  they  are  gone,  he  comes 
off  his  perch  like  a  gentleman,  smoothes  down  his  pretty  gray 
suit,  and  pours  out  his  soul  in  a  paeon  of  great  joy. 

Like  nearly  all  of  the  birds  the  catbird  is  a  friend  of  man, 
and  does  far  more  good  than  harm.  I  think  the  only  charge  ever 
preferred  against  him  is  that  he  likes  an  occasional  cherry,  but 
he  doesn't  have  to  have  it  stained  with  coal-tar  dye  to  allure  him 
nor  must  he  have  one  with  every  potion.  As  a  friend  of  mine  said 
to  me  the  other  day.  "If  the  birds  eat  more  of  my  cherries  than 
I  can  spare,  I  will  plant  more  cherry  trees."  Why  shouldn't 
man  do  that  much  for  the  birds?  If  he  doesn't  want  to  lose 
his  cherries  let  him  plant  mulberry  trees.  The  birds  like  mul- 
berries better  and  mulberries  look  more  like  caterpillars  anyway. 


Wrens. 


Order,  Passer es. 
Family,  Troglodytidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Brownish-gray  color.  Small  size.  Rapid 
wing-motion  in  flight.  Nervous  and  active.  Song  bubbling  over.  Often 
throw  their  tails  backward. 

Destroyers  of  ants  and  their  eggs  as  well  as  all  varieties  of  small 
insects. 

721.  HOUSE   WREN.      Troglodytes  Aedon.     Four   and   one-half 
inches  long.     Brownish-gray  above.     Dusky  white  breast. 

722.  WINTER  WREN.      Troglodytes   Memalis.      Four   and   one- 
fourth  inches  long.  Light  brown.  Finely  barred  above  and  below.     Car- 
ries tail  over  his  back  most  of  the  time.     Bubbling  songster. 

724.  SHORT-BILLED  MARSH  WREN.     Cistothorus  stellaris.  Four 
inches. long.     Brown  above,  white  below.     Wings  and  tail  lighter  and 
barred.     Shy,  quick  and  nervous.     Builds  several  nests  among  reeds. 

725.  LONG-BILLED  MARSH  WREN.  Cistothorus  palustris.    Simi- 
lar to  short-billed  variety,  but  an  inch  longer  and  has  a  whitish  line 
above  the  eyie. 

HOUSE  WREN. 

When  you  see  a  gingery  little  cinnamon-gray  bird  with  his 
tail  straight  up  and  hear  his  rippling,  bubbling  song,  you  had 
better  make  your  first  guess  "a  wren."  When  you  hear  this 
little  singer  you  will  not  be  prepared  to  dispute  the  fellow  who 
says  that  he  can  pour  a  quart  of  water  out  of  a  pint  bottle. 

A  little  Jewish  boy  in  speaking  of  a  new  suit  that  he  was 
wearing,  held  his  coat  sleeve  up  to  me  and  exhibiting  a  well-  con- 
cealed green  thread  in  an  otherwise  gray  suit,  said  "See,  it  has 
an  inwizzable  stripe/'  So  the  little  wren  has  many  fine  in- 
wizzable  bars  across  his  back,  wings  and  tail. 

If  you  would  like  to  see  a  family  of  these  little  bits  of  ambi- 
tion raised  right  at  your  very  door,  put  up  a  little  bird-box  right 


88  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

away.  Cut  the  hole  in  the  box  the  size  of  a  silver  quarter  to  keep 
the  sparrows  out.  Put  up  two  boxes  if  you  have  time,  for  they 
will  enjoy  making  use  of  both  of  them  if  not  otherwise  occupied. 
You  will  enjoy  watching  them  work.  You  will  see  them  put  in 
sticks  that  you  would  never  think  they  could  handle  and  you  will 
find  this  very  impatient  bird  a  bird  of  remarkable  perseverance. 
Then  when  they  have  carried  in  enough  sticks  and  straws  and 
what-not,  they'll  lay  a  feather  bed  on  top  of  them  and  Jennie 
will  lay  from  six  to  nine  tiny,  finely  dotted  pink  eggs  and  if  you 
go  near  the  home  then,  you'll  get  an  awful  scolding  for  Jennie 
is  just  a  bit  shrewish.  When  the  stork  finally  lands,  the  real 
work  begins  and  woe  to  the  ant  colony  that  happens  to  be  near 
for  it  had  better  hide  those  eggs  and  woe  to  all  other  tiny  living 
things — for  business !  There  are  many  mouths  to  feed  and  a  whole 
house  to  keep  clean  too,  and  if  there  is  a  tidy  little  house-keeper 
in  the  world  it  is  Jennie. 

Of  course  they  don't  have  to  have  fancy  bird-houses,  they 
will  use  almost  any  suitable  place.  I  have  seen  a  nest  in  a  rural 
mail  box,  in  an  old  shoe,  in  a  hole, in  a  brick  wall.  They  would 
almost  build  a  nest  in  your  hair  if  you  would  keep  your  pocket 
full  of  ant  eggs. 

As  birds  nest  near  the  best  feeding-grounds,  it  is  needless  to 
say  that  wrens  are  of  great  service  to  you,  especially  if  you  have 
a  garden,  and  as  they  are  always  in  danger  of  cats  it  is  well  to 
place  your  wren-box  where  a  cat  can't  reach  it.  Some  friends 
of  mine  whose  cat  had  killed  a  mother  wren,  took  the  baby-wrens 
into  their  home  to  raise  them  and  to  keep  the  little  fellows  well 
fed  it  took  three  of  them  the  greater  part  of  their  time  and  one 
day  after  they  had  begun  to  fly  they  thought  they  had  lost  them 
but  later  they  found  them  snuggled  down  in  a  cup  at  the  top  of 
their  chandelier.  Their  experience  became  one  of  the  happiest 
of  their  bird-memories. 


Chickadees  and  Nuthatches. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Paridae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Permanent  residents.  More  or  less  black 
and  white.  Smaller  than  sparrows.  Gather  food  from  limbs  and 
trunks  of  trees.  Not  red-headed  like  woodpeckers  nor  do  they  support 
themselves  by  their  tail-feathers.  Insect-eaters  and  of  special  value 
to  horticulturalists. 

735.  CHICKADEE.  Parus  atricapillus.  An  inch  shorter  than 
the  English  sparrow.  Crown  and  throat  black.  Gray  above  with  white 
cheeks.  Soiled  white  below.  Most  easily  identified  by  its  note. 

727.  WHITE-BREASTED  NUTHATCH.  Sitta  carolinensis.  Length 
six  inches.    Black  crown  and  neck.    Bluish-drab  above  with  some  white 
on  points.    White  below.     Climbs  trees  up  or  down  head  first.     Active 
and  nervous.     Called  "Devil-downhead."     Bill  rather  long. 

728.  RED-BREASTED  NUTHATCH.      Sitta  canadensis.     Hardly 
five  inches  long.     Bluish-drab  above.     Head  marked  with  black  and 
white.    Neck  black.     Breast  brownish-red.     Some  white  on  points. 

731.  TUFTED  TITMOUSE.  Baeolophus  Ucolor.  Six  inches  long. 
Criested.  Drab  above,  dull  white  below.  Dull  black  cap  and  black  bill. 
Rare  on  the  prairies  as  are  all  birds  that  nest  in  tree-holes. 

CHICKADEE. 

This  little  black-capped  titmouse  can  be  told  on  sight  by  the 
merest  novice.  His  black  cap  and  downy  feathers  are  not  the 
only  telltales  but  his  manner  of  hopping  about  the  trees  as  well. 
It  makes  no  difference  to  him  whether  he  is  above  or  beneath  them 
provided  always  he  can  find  the  eggs  of  the  cankerworm  and  a 
good  supply  of  tiny  insects. 

Every  little  while  he  will  pronounce  his  name  for  you  too 
* '  Chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee ".  There  is  no  mistaking  it.  You  could 
not  pronounce  it  better  yourself. 

He  is  called  one  of  the  snow-birds  and  he  certainly  delights 


90  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

in  the  storm.  Cheerful  at  all  times  he  wins  your  affection  at  once 
and  holds  it  forever,  for  you  cannot  help  loving  a  courageous 
heart  especially  when  you  find  it  done  up  in  so  small  a  package. 

It  is  a  rare  bird  on  the  treeless  plains  for  it  chooses  for  its 
nesting  place  the  deserted  homes  of  other  birds  in  dead  tree-limbs, 
yet-  it  is  a  common  visitor  and  even  a  winter  resident  along  the 
tree-lined  rivers. 

For  some  reason  the  snowbirds  seem  to  keep  in  hiding  un- 
til the  weather  is  thoroughly  spoiled,  when  they  come  forth  in 
numbers  from  somewhere  to  revel  in  it. 


Kinglets. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,   Sylviidae. 


749.  RUBY-CROWNED  KINGLET.  Regulus  calendula.  Four  and 
one-half  inches  long.  Olive  above.  Wings  and  tail  olive-yellow.  White 
bars  on  wings.  Breast  grayish-yellow.  Red  spot  on  head  of  some 
males. 

748.  GOLDEN-CROWNED  KINGLET.  Regulus  satrapa.  A  trifle 
over  four  inches  long.  Similar  to  the  ruby-crowned  kinglet  except 
the  patch  on  the  head  is  orange  instead  of  red  and  it  has  a  white  line 
above  the  eye. 

RUBY-CROWNED  KINGLET. 

While  starting  from  home  this  morning  (there  is  always 
something  new  to  be  seen)  I  saw  as  many  as  a  dozen  tiny  king- 
lets in  the  elm  tree  in  front  of  my  home.  The  little  acrobats 
were  climbing  and  darting  and  falling  about  the  tips  of  the 
boughs  among  the  elm  flowers  taking  every  tiny  bug  in  sight  and 
it  is  safe  to  say  not  a  guilty  one  escaped.  Except  the  humming 
birds,  we  have  no  smaller  birds  than  they.  They  are  not  bigger 
than  a  minute  but  such  little  bundles  of  energy  you  never  did 
see.  I  walked  right  up  to  them  to  study  them  for  they  were  too 
busy  to  notice  me.  I  looked  hard  to  find  the  ruby  crown  which  is 
small  at  best  and  wanting  in  the  females,  but  they  did  not  keep 
still  long  enough  to  give  me  more  than  a  wee  flash,  just  enough 
to  let  me  know  which  kinglet  had  come  to  visit  me.  The  English 
sparrows  stood  around  like  a  gang  of  ragmuffins  and  watched 
and  glared  but  they  made  no  demonstrations.  They  stood  there 
like  stuffed  birds.  Bundles  of  energy  themselves  I  guess  they 
were  just  paralyzed  to  see  the  kinglets  work. 

Here  to-day,  gone  to-morrow — you  are  lucky  if  you  see  more 
than  here  and  there  a  stray  one,  but  you  will  be  paid  for  every 
moment  you  give  them.  I  wonder  how  many  kinds  of  birds  come 
in  a  season  to  the  very  tree  upon  which  I  saw  the  kinglets  this 


92 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 


morning.  I  should  guess  as  many  as  forty.  Do  you  know  I  have 
almost  given  up  speaking  of  any  birds  as  "rare",  for  just  as  I 
have  said  that  such  and  such  a  bird  is  seldom  seen,  I  turn  and 
find  a  flock  of  them  feeding  on  my  lawn.  I  think  that  more  than 
half  of  "rarity"  is  in  our  eyes.  Many  a  man  doubtless  thinks 
there  are  few  birds  in  his  locality  while  it  may  be  that  there  is  a 
wren's  nest  in  a  hole  at  the  top  of  his  porch,  the  nest  of  a  vireo 
in  the  top  of  his  elm  tree,  a  robin's  nest  in  his  apple  tree,  a  blue- 
bird's nest  in  his  garden,  sparrows  all  around  him  and  a  hundred 
swifts  in  his  chimney.  Surely  if  he  watches,  he  will  see  the  little 
kinglets,  for  they  have  a  little  work  to  do  for  everybody. 


Thrushes. 


Order,  Passeres. 
Family,  Turdidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Six  to  ten  inches  long,  graceful  in  form 
and  gifted  in  song.  Except  the  robin  redbreast  and  bluebird,  thrushes 
are  brown  above  with  whitish  breast  marked  with  arrow-shaped  spots. 

Their  food  consists  mostly  of  earth-worms  and  insects  with  a  little 
wild  fruit  for  sauce.  Of  great  service  in  groves  and  gardens  and  upon 
lawns. 

761.  ROBIN  REDBREAST.  Merula  migratoria.  Ten  inches  long.. 
Everybody  knows  him. 

766.  BLUEBIRD.  Sialia  sialis.  Length  seven  inches.  Bright 
blue  above.  Breast  light  claret-red. 

755.  WOODTHRUSH.     HylocicHla  mustelina.     Eight  inches  long. 
Brown  above,  lightest  toward  head.     White  below  with  arrow-shaped 
spots  on  sides  of  breast.     White  eye-ring.     White  throat.     A  familiar 
bird. 

756.  WILSON'S  THRUSH.      (Veery)*.    Turdus  fuscescens.    Seven 
and    one-half    inches    long.      Tawny-brown    above,    white    below    with 
arrow-shaped  spots.      Buff  in   front  of  wings.      Common   though   shy. 
Has  no  eye-ring  as  other  thrushes  do. 

758a.  OLIVE-BACKED  THRUSH.  Hylocichla  ustulata  swainsonii. 
Seven  and  one-half  inches  long.  Olive-brown  above.  Yellowish  breast, 
white  beneath.  Yellowish  eye-ring.  Throat  and  breast  spotted. 

759.  HERMIT  THRUSH.  Hylocichla  guttata.  Seven  and  one- 
half  inches  long.  Olive-brown  above.  Brighter  toward  tail  which 
serves  to  distinguish  it  from  the  wood  thrush.  Yellow  eye-ring  whereas 
wood  thrush  has  white  eye-ring. 

674.  OVENBIRD  or  GOLDEN-CROWNED  THRUSH.  Seiurus 
aurocapillus.  Olive  above,  crown  of  old-gold  edged  by  black  lines. 
Breast  spotted  like  the  thrushes.  White  eye-ring.  See  under  warblers. 


94  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

ROBIN  REDBREAST. 

Of  course  you  know  the  robin  redbreast,  who  isn't  a  robin  at 
all  but  only  a  thrush — Only  a  thrush  ?  Well,  it  is  quite  an  honor 
to  belong  to  that  cultured  family.  They  are  vocalists  of  the 
highest  order.  The  brown  thrasher,  the  wood  thrush,  the  her- 
mit thrush  are  all  country  cousins  of  the  redbreast,  and  what  a 
quartette  of  singers  they  are. 

When  our  ancestors,  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  those  famous  three 
brothers,  stepped  from  the  Mayflower,  the  first  bird  they  saw  they 
called  the  robin.  He  was  the  bird  that  covered  the  "Babes  in  the 
Woods"  with  leaves,  you  know,  and  the  name  has  clung  to  him 
ever  since.  Well,  that  was  probably  the  limit  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  as  to  bird  lore. 

How  he  can  sing !  What  a  nicely  trained  voice  he  has ! 
Modulation,  accentuation,  pitch,  crescendo,  diminuendo,  everything 
that  Caruso  knows,  he  knows,  and  when  he  comes  north  in 
early  spring  time,  the  world  takes  his  word  for  it —  that  spring  has 
come.  Somehow  we  give  the  little  fellow  credit  for  knowing  more 
about  the  weather  than  the  weather  bureau  knows.  Did  you  ever 
notice  his  white  eyelids?  Can  you  tell  him  from  his  wife,  with 
his  darker  head  and  brighter  breast  ?  Did  you  ever  hear  him  sound 
his  note  of  alarm  when  you  have  come  upon  him  suddenly  while 
he  is  courting  his  ladylove?  And  how  he  pulls  upon  that  worm! 
He  throws  out  his  chest  like  a  Dutchman  at  a  saengerfest  and 
swallows  it  as  though  it  were  a  sausage.  And  what  an  appetite! 
Why  if  you  could  eat  as  much  between  sunrise  and  sunset  as  a  baby 
robin,  it  would  take  280  pounds  of  steak  to  feed  you,  and  about  all 
the  baby  robin  gets  is  earthworms  from  the  lawn.  You  say  the  rob- 
ins steal  cherries?  Maybe.  You  and  I  have  done  that.  We  knew 
better  but  the  robins  don't.  Maybe  the  very  seed  from  which  the 
cherry  tree  grew  was  dropped  by  a  robin.  He  is  entitled  to  a  few 
of  the  cherries  and  he  very  kindly  takes  them  from  the  top  of  the 
tree  where  you  couldn't  get  them  anyway.  If  he  should  fly  into 
your  pantry  and  open  a  can  of  preserves  he  ought  not  to  be 
censured. 

Last  October  I  saw  three  varieties  of  thrushes,  the  brown 
thrasher,  Wilson's  thrush  and  the  redbreast  all  pulling  worms 
from  the  lawn  of  a  friend  of  mine  who  thinks  I  am  having  a 
brain-storm  because  I  am  writing  these  articles.  How  often  you 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  .  95 

have  seen  Mr.  Robin  hopping  over  a  lawn(  he  doesn't  walk  as  the 
meadow  lark  does.)  Suddenly  he  stops,  turns  his  head  sideways 
as  though  he  hears  a  worm  crawling  through  the  dirt,  then  stabbing 
his  bill  into  the  earth  he  pulls  forth  a  long  earthworm  without 
breaking  him.  Don't  you  always  break  them  when  you  dig  fish- 
bait  and  try  to  pull  one  out? 

It  is  too  bad  Lady  Robin  is  such  a  dirty  house  keeper,  but  then 
she  has  a  mud  house  and  it  is  harder  to  keep  clean  than  most 
houses.  No  wonder  they  love  to  bathe  in  the  spray  of  a  fountain! 
A  few  years  ago  I  was  out  bird  hunting  and  came  upon  a  nest  of 
dried  grass  and  upon  looking  into  it  saw  a  robin's  egg.  There  was 
little  chance  to  mistake  the  * ( robin-blue ' '  egg  but  who  would  dream 
that  a  robin  ever  built  a  home  without  mud-plaster?  Presently 
Lady  Robin  appeared  and  confirmed  my  guess  that  it  was  her 
home.  But  why  no  mud?  Because,  the  poor  things — that  very 
dry  season  they  couldn  't  find  any ;  if  they  could  it  dried  before  they 
could  get  it  to  the  nest.  Like  other  Dakotans  of  that  time, 
they  were  adjusting  themselves  to  circumstances.  Bad  boys  shoot 
very  many  robins  and  if  any  one  finds  out '  *  who  killed  Cock  Robin ' ' 
send  word  to  me.  Who  was  it  do  you  say?  "It  was  the  Sparrow 
with  his  bow  and  arrow?"  Yes,  that  English  sparrow  again. 
While  he  never  kills  the  robin,  I  imagine  he  annoys  him  awfully. 
A  short  time  ago  I  saw  a  robin  in  the  top  of  a  tree  singing  away  as 
hard  as  he  could  and  on  an  adjacent  branch  were  a  dozen  English 
sparrows  who  were  listening  to  the  music.  They  didn't  like  it  be- 
cause he  had  come  but  they  didn't  do  much  but  "rubber"  at  him. 
He  didn  't  care.  He  had  a  little  spring  poetry  to  recite  and  besides 
he  has  the  very  important  duty  of  playing  the  role  of  "harbinger 
of  spring. ' '  And  how  soon  he  is  gone !  What  is  it  Longfellow  says? 

"Turn,  turn  my  wheel 

All  life  is  brief; 

What  now  is  bud  will  soon  be  leaf ; 

What  now  is  leaf  will  soon  decay: 

Tomorrow  will  be  another  day. 
The  wind  blows  east, 
The  wind  blows  west, 

The  blue  eggs  in  the  robin's  nest 

Will  soon  have  wings  and  beak  and  breast 

And  flutter  and  fly  away." 


96  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

BLUEBIRD. 

When  the  bluebird  comes,  we  know  that  South  Dakota's  state 
flower,  the  anemone,  will  soon  push  its  buds  into  the  sunlight 
for  the  wind's  caresses.  Could  we  have  chosen  a  better  emblem  than 
this  royal  wind-flower?  And  when  we  see  tiny  specks  of  blue 
floating  upon  the  winds  of  March  as  though  the  sun  in  bursting 
through  the  clouds  had  broken  bits  of  blue  heaven  and  sent  them 
floating  down  to  us  in  song,  we  feel  that  there  could  be  no  better 
sign  of  the  awakened  life  of  another  year.  That  these  loving  little 
gentle  folks  should  brave  the  blasts  of  early  springtime  is  accounted 
for  only  on  the  theory  that 

"The  bravest   are  the  tenderest 
The  loving  are  the  daring." 

The  bluebird's  motto,  it  seems  to  me,  is  "live  and  let  live." 
Even  the  English  sparrow,  the  inquisitor  of  bird  life,  is  treated 
with  respect,  and  rather  than  go  to  law  (in  bird-land  "might 
makes  right")  about  the  possession  of  a  bird-house,  a  tree  hole 
or  the  abandoned  home  of  a  woodpecker,  the  bluebird  generally 
moves  on  and  the  sparrow  often  doesn't  move  in.  (Little  dog 
in  the  manger.) 

However,  if  the  bluebird  has  moved  in,  he  can  lay  aside  his 
heavenly  disposition  for  a  while  and  show  you  something  of  the 
courageous  heart  that  braved  the  storm.  Then  Mr.  Sparrow  moves 
on. 

It  is  often  asked  if  the  same  bird  returns  year  after  year 
to  the  same  spot.  No  doubt  many  varieties  do  so  and  the  blue- 
bird is  one  of  them.  Not  only  does  he  return  but  when  he  starts 
north  he  leaves  his  wife  to  follow  him  later.  As  I  am  writing 
the  little  fellow  who  lives  at  1007  South  Main  avenue  in  the  little 
house  to  which  I  have  given  him  a  perennial  lease,  in  considera- 
tion of  work  in  my  garden,  has  arrived  but  his  wife  has  not  yet 
joined  him.  Just  now  he  and  I  are  trying  to  drive  out  some  ten- 
ants who  have  not  paid  their  rent.  When  the  little  nest  of  grass 
is  finished,  four  pale-blue  eggs  will  be  laid  which  will  open  upon 
four  tiny  almost  black  little  babies  that  will  keep  papa  and  mamma 
very  busy  until  they  too  have  learned  to  find  worms  and  to  catch 
insects. 


BALTIMORE    ORIOLE 

(UPPER  FIGURE,  MALE;    LOWER  FIGURE,  FEMALE) 
Order— PASSERES  Family  —  ICTERID/E 

Genus-IcTERus  Species-CALBULA 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  97 

Late  in  the  season  another  family  will  be  raised  and  possibly 
a  third  and  when  at  last  the  little  home  is  broken  up  and  you  no 
more  see  the  even  and  easy  flight  of  your  little  neighbors  nor  hear 
their  gentle  and  almost  distant  call  note  you  had  better  make  sure 
that  the  storm  windows  are  on  and  that  there  is  plenty  of  coal 
in  the  cellar  and  you  may  think  of  your  little  friends  sailing  south 
upon  the  winds,  their  backs  reflecting  the  blue  of  heaven  and 
their  breasts  the  southern  sun. 

OVENBIRD.  Six  inches  long.  The  size  of  an  English  sparrow.  Olive 
brown  above  with  a  golden-brown  crown.  White  beneath  with  the  char- 
acteristic thrush  spots  on  the  breast.  Small  white  ring  about  the 
eyes.  Onie  of  the  birds  that  walk. 

OVENBIRD. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  scientists  classify  this  little  bird  as 
a  wood  warbler  his  wonderful  similarity  to  the  thrushes  will  lead 
you  to  think  of  him  as  one  of  them.  If  it  is  not  a  thrush,  and  we 
must  take  the  scentists7  word  for  it,  one  thing  is  sure,  it  is  trying 
as  hard  to  make  a  thrush  of  itself  as  the  flicker  is.  Both  of  them  de- 
part from  the  habits  of  their  kind,  "come  off  their  perches"  and 
get  down  to  earth.  Well,  the  thrush  family  is  thoroughly  respect- 
able and  the  flicker  is  not  to  be  blamed,  but  the  ovenbird  need 
never  be  ashamed  of  the  warblers. 

Few  birds  are  of  greater  interest.  To  see  one  of  them  walk- 
ing among  the  dead  leaves,  actually  walking  seems  very  queer 
for  so  small  a  bird  and  the  moving  of  its  head  and  neck  back- 
ward and  forward,  rooster-like  when  it  walks  gives  it  a  dignity 
that  is  very  striking. 

Ovenbirds  like  cuckoos  are  often  spoken  of  as  very  shy  but  in 
the  west  they  seem  to  be  surprisingly  familiar.  I  have  walked 
to  within  a  few  feet  of  them  and  have  observed  as  little  timidity 
among  them  as  is  to  be  expected  from  robins.  The  scarcity  of 
trees  in  the  west  subjects  all  birds  to  more  frequent  exposure 
and  doubtless  explains  in  part  what  many  people  have  often  re- 
marked, the  greater  familiarity  of  western  birds. 

The  name  ovenbird  is  given  to  it  because  of  the  shape  of  its 
nest  which  is  entered  from  the  side  and  very  prettily  arched 
above. 


Grebes. 


Order,  Pygopodes. 
Family,  Podicipidae. 


6.  PIED-BIL/LBD  GREBE.  Podilymbus  podiceps.  Thirteen  and 
a  half  inches  long.  Dull  brownish  drab  above  and  white  below  except 
for  his  black  throat.  This  little  "dabchick"  can  be  identified  by  the 
black  band  around  the  middle  of  his  bill  and  by  his  short  tail.  He  is 
one  of  several  birds  that  the  boys  call  "hell-divier".  His  long  lobed 
toes  enable  him  to  prove  his  title  to  the  name.  Can  be  found  on  al- 
most any  Western  pond  and  even  in  the  wet  places  along  railroad 
tracks. 

2.  RED-NECKED  GREBE  or  HOLBOELL'S  GREBE.  Colymbus 
holboelii.  Nineteen  inches  long.  The  red  neck  of  this  grebe  is  his 
special  marking  though  he  has  a  black  crown  and  a  small  black  crest 
to  give  beauty  to  an  otherwise  dull  body.  Dusky  above  and  grayish 
white  below. 

4.  EARED  GREBE.  Colymbus  nigricollis  calif ornicus.  Thir- 
teen inches  long.  The  yellow  tufts  of  feathers  extending  backward 
from  the  eyes  are  the  conspicuous  marks.  Head  black.  Sides  brown. 
Back  dull  black.  Breast  white. 

PIED-BILLED  GREBE. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  birds  is  this  little  fellow  that 
is  so  often  mistaken  for  a  duck.  "Hell-diver"  they  call  him  and 
surely  he  is  an  artist  in  the  water.  Many  a  gunner  has  seen  his 
shot  scatter  over  the  surface  of  the  pond  where  a  second  before 
he  saw  this  elusive  bird,  for  just  as  the  gun  flashed  the  "dab- 
chick"  "ducked"  quicker  than  a  flash  and  did  not  reappear  until 
he  was  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  gunner.  Scientists  tell  us 
that  he  belongs  to  the  lowest  order  of  bird  life  and  is  but  little 
removed  from  the  reptiles  but  he  is  all  the  more  interesting  if 
that  be  true. 

The  grebe  builds  a  floating  nest  and  lays  its  white  eggs  in 
A  slight  depression  on  its  weed-raft.  The  heat  of  its  body,  the 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  99 

warm  sun  beating  down  upon  the  muddy,  half-decomposed  nest 
of  rushes  and  possibly  even  the  warm  water,  all  help  to  call  the 
little  divers  from  their  dirty  eggshells  and  when  they  have  arrived 
you  need  not  fear,  as  a  friend  of  mine  did,  that  they  will  drown 
if  they  tumble  out  of  the  nest.  They  will  really  be  "in  their 
element. ' '  The  little  fellows  must  have  a  good  time  floating  about 
in  their  nest  or  taking  a  ride  upon  their  mamma's  back  while  she 
is  passing  dainty  morsels  up  to  them  to  satisfy  their  constant 
hunger.  It  is  no  use  to  shoot  them  for  they  are  pretty  poor  upon 
the  table  but  they  are  mighty  pretty  on  the  pond. 


Loons. 


Order,  Pygopodes. 
Family,   Podicipidae. 


7.  COMMON  LOON  (GREAT  NORTHERN  DIVER).  Gavia  imber. 
Thirty-two  inches  long.  A  diver  in  deep  water.  Head  and  neck  black 
streaked  with  white.  Black  above,  barred  and  streaked  with  white 
beneath.  Tail  feathers  short.  Their  cry  resembles  human  laughter. 

A  great  old  diver  is  the  laughing  loon.  Whether  silly  peo- 
ple are  loony  or  luny  depends  upon  whether  they  possess  the 
characteristics  of  the  loon  or  have  been  moon-struck.  Just  why 
anyone  should  charge  the  loon  with  a  lack  .of  wisdom  is  hard  to 
guess  for  they  are  about  as  wise  as  any  bird  that  swims.  Unlike 
the  grebes,  they  sail  to  the  deep  water  where  they  go  after  big 
game.  They  are  poor  land  birds  and  are  almost  as  helpless  as  a 
"fish  out  of  water"  but  once  in  the  center  of  the  lake,  they  are 
the  perfection  of  ease,  swimming  being  easier  to  them  than  fly- 
ing. 

Museums  are  seldom  without  a  "stuffed"  loon  and  most  of 
the  birds  that  we  see  in  collections  are  literally  "stuffed"  but 
rarely  mounted.  Water  birds  seem  to  be  favorites  with  cheap 
taxidermists  who  seemingly  will  not  be  satisfied  until  they  can 
row  about  as  "the  only  loons  upon  the  lake." 


Gulls  and  Terns. 


Order,  Longipennes. 
Family,  Laridae. 


Family  characteristics:  In  the  West,  the  gulls  are  usually  seen 
in  very  large  flocks  during  migration  either  gathering  worms  in  time 
of  plowing  or  bugs  during  harvesting.  Their  prevailing  bluish-gray 
color,  wide  wing-spread  and  easy  flight  make  them  easy  to  identify. 
Terns  are  the  only  birds  mistaken  for  them  but  the  little  black  tern 
that  skims  over  our  ponds  is  easily  recognized.  Terns  can  be  dis- 
tinguished from  gulls  by  the  way  they  point  their  bills  downward  in 
flight  rather  than  straight  ahead  of  them.  Their  bills  are  straight 
whereas  the  bills  of  the  gulls  curve  downward  at  the  point  and  are 
slightly  enlarged  near  the  tip. 

59.  FRANKLIN      GULL.  Larus      Franklinii.        About      fourteen 
inches   long.      Wide    wing-spread.      Head   black    with    white   eye-ring. 
Upper  parts  "gull-blue"  or  pearl  gray.     Breast  white  with  beautiful 
rose  tint.     Bill  red.     Tips  of  wing  feathers  black  tipped  with  white. 

60.  BONAPARTE    GULL.      Larus   Philadelphia.    About   fourteen 
inches   long.      Wide   wing-spread.      Head   black.      Upper   parts    "gull- 
blue"  or  pearl  gray.     Under  parts  white.     Tips  of  wing  feathers  black. 
Bill  black.     Feet  red. 

77.  BLACK  TERN.  Hydrochelidon  nigra  surinamensis.  Length 
nine  and  one-half  inches.  Almost  wholly  black  above.  Tail  slate 
color.  Lower  body  white  beneath.  Feet  black.  Bill  black.  May  be 
seen  on  almost  any  inland  pond  skimming  the  surface  of  the  water 
with  bills  turned  downward.  Nests  on  muskrat  houses  or  bundles  of 
dead  reeds.  Often  mistaken  for  a  gull. 

69.  FORSTER  TERN.  Sterna  forsteri.  Fourteen  and  one-half 
inches  long.  Light  pearl  gray  above.  White  below.  Top  of  head 
black.  Bill  red  with  black  tip.  Legs  red.  Tail  split  deeply. 

BONAPARTE  GULL. 

Who  has  not  seen  the  flocks  of  gulls  that  by  thousands  visit 
the  fields  of  the  Mississippi  valley?  What  a  pretty  sight  it  is  to 
see  them  sailing  silently  above  us!  The  world  must  be  a  moving 


102  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

picture  to  them.  Multitudes  of  these  beautiful  sea  birds  make  an 
annual  flight  from  the  Mexican  Gulf  to  Manitoba  and  northward 
to  nest.  Graceful  beyond  compare  they  seem  to  be  merely  float- 
ing through  the  air,  turning  their  heads  now  this  way  now  that, 
and  stopping  their  flight  not  even  while  scratching  their  pretty 
heads  with  their  toes. 

It  is  a  pretty  long  journey  that  they  make  to  their  northern 
summer  resorts,  but  they  are  rapid  in  flight  having  a  very  wide 
wingspread  and  much  smaller  bodies  than  their  appearance  in- 
dicates and  it  would  take  them  only  four  or  five  days,  or  even  less, 
to  make  the  trip  if  they  did  not  visit  along  the  way,  but  they  stop 
over  in  springtime  to  eat  worms  from  the  newly  plowed  fields  and 
in  the  fall  to  gather  grasshoppers  from  the  newly  harvested  grain. 
Remember  they  never  harm  the  grain. 

Alas,  the  poor  gulls  are  awfully  imposed  upon.  It  is  a  favor- 
ite pastime  with  some  of  the  terns  or  sea  swallows  to  pursue  and 
annoy  the  gulls  until  they  drop  any  choice  morsel  of  food  which 
they  may  be  carrying  when  the  terns  secure  the  booty  thus  cheat- 
ing the  gullible  gull  out  of  it.  The  gulls  are  shot  by  thousands 
for  commerce,  their  plumage  being  especially  desirable  for  hat 
trimmings  but  it  is  a  waning  practice  for  the  woman  who  parades 
the  streets  these  days  wearing  upon  her  hat  the  badge  of  'bird 
motherhood  is  fast  learning  that  whatever  of  reflected  beauty 
she  acquires  from  the  pretty  plume  is  offset  by  a  loss  of  esteem 
from  those  she  meets.  An  old  saying  is  "Whatever  of  coin  goes 
into  a  man's  purse  comes  out  of  his  soul",  and  it  is  just  as  true 
of  "Whatever  of  plumage  goes  upon  a  woman's  hat." 


Pelicans. 


Order,  Steganspodes. 
Family,  Pelicanidae. 


125.  WHITE  PELICAN.  Pelecanus  erythrorhynchos.  Almost 
entirely  white  but  some  black  feathers  on  wings.  The  large  yellow 
pouch  hanging  from  the  lower  mandible  of  this  bird  and  his  pure 
white  plumage  are  enough  to  distinguish  him.  If  more  is  needed 
the  small  hook  at  the  extremity  of  the  upper  mandible  and  the  rud- 
der-like projections  above  it  will  make  the  identification  complete. 

The  white  pelican  is  one  of  the  strangest  looking  birds  that 
visit  us.  In  size  half  way  between  a  goose  and  a  swan,  its  long 
neck  is  terminated  by  one  of  the  oddest  heads  among  birds,  beasts 
or  fishes.  The  lower  jaw  or  mandible,  if  you  prefer,  has  hanging 
beneath  it  a  large  pouch  that  looks  as  though  it  had  been  painted 
yellow.  It  can  doubtless  hold  a  quart  or  more  of  frogs,  small 
fishes  and  reptiles  and  such  other  water  food  as  can  be  found. 
The  upper  mandible  has  a  small  hook  at  its  extremity  that  enables 
it  to  hold  with  certainty  whatever  it  seizes.  They  are  wholly  white 
except  upon  the  wings,  the  larger  feathers  of  which  are  nearly 
black.  Why  sportsmen  should  delight  in  shooting  one  of  these 
useful  and  certainly  harmless  oddities  can  be  explained  only  on 
the  theory  that  men  love  to  kill  whatever  is  rare.  Pelicans  cross 
the  Dakotas  in  fairly  large  numbers  stopping  at  the  small  lakes  to 
load  up  with  provisions  before  continuing  their  northern  journey. 
Wounded  birds  often  become  very  tame,  a  fact  that  is  characteristic 
of  nearly  all  wild  life.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  we  should  be 
greatly  surprised  at  the  familiarity  of  birds  and  mammals  if  they 
could  know  that  we  would  not  harm  them.  Whether  or  not  the 
pelican  is  the  taxidermist's  delight  would  be  hard  to  say  but 
most  of  the  dead  ones  have  been  mounted— I  beg  your  pardon, 
I  should  say  "stuffed" — and  most  of  them  miserably  so. 

I  recently  met  a  lady  who  is  "stuffing"  birds  as  a  business 


104 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 


who  does  not  know  anything  whatever  of  wild  life  and  is  just 
as  apt  as  not  to  mount  a  chimney  swift  upon  a  yellow  warbler's 
nest  or  a  grebe  upon  an  apple  bough.  I  really  think  that  she 
should  use  oyster  dressing  and  stuff  only  domestic  fowl. 


Ducks,  Geese  and  Swans. 


Order,  Anseres. 
Family,  Anatidae. 


Family  characteristics:  Water  birds  having  bills  with  strainers 
on  the  sides.  They  usually  have  plate-like  bills  like  those  of  the 
common  duck.  Strong  fliers,  expert  swimmers  and  divers.  Feet 
are  webbed  and  legs  are  short.  Thiey  live  on  small  fishes,  snails  and 
the  small  animal  life  of  ponds,  lakes  and  rivers.  Many  of  them  feed 
on  water-weeds  like  eel  grass  (called  wild  celery.)  They  visit  grain- 
fields  in  season  to  pick  up  waste  grain.  They  are  much  prized  as 
game  food  and  millions  are  shot  on  the  prairie  lakes  every  year  both 
for  food  and  for  sport,  mainly  the  latter. 

DUCKS. 

132.  MALLARD.  Anas  boschas.  Nearly  two  feet  long. 
Head  dark  green.  Has  a  white  collar.  Breast  chestnut.  Gray  be- 
low. Dark  gray  above.  Speculum  purplish  green.  Several  small 
tail  feathers  are  curled.  The  female  is  dark  brown  above.  Buff 
breast  and  purplish  green  speculum  on  wings. 

140.  BLUE-WINGED      TEAL.      Querquedula     discors.       Sixteen 
inches  long.      Best  told  by  its  size,   the  blue  speculum  on  its   wings 
and  the  white  in  front  of  its  eyes.     Nests  in  large  numbers  in  this 
latitude.     Habits  like  those  of  the  green  winged  teal. 

139.  GREEN-WINGED  TEAL.  Nettion  carolinensis.  A  beauti- 
ful little  duck  about  fifteen  inches  long  with  a  cinnamon-colored  head 
marked  with  green  on  the  sides  and  having  a  gneen  speculum  on  its 
wings.  Slightly  crested.  Feeds  in  shallow  water  tipping  up  to  feed 
on  the  vegetation  on  the  bottom.  A  good  table  duck. 

141.  CINNAMON  TEAL.  Querquedula  cyanoptera.  Sixteen  inches 
long.  Cinnamon  colored  head,  breast  and  sides,  light  blue  on  wings  but 
with  green  speculum.     Much  more  of  the  cinnamon  color  than  on  the 
green  winged  teal.     Most  abundant  in  the  far  west. 

142.  SPOONBILL.   Spatula  clypeata.     During  spring  migration  a 
very   pretty   duck   marked   with   green,   black,   blue   and   white.      Can 
be  surely  identified  by  its  wide,  flat,  spoon-like  bill  and  size  midway 


106  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

between    mallards    and    teals.      About    twenty    inches    long.      A    very 
common  duck. 

143.  PINTAIL.     Dafila  acuta.    The  pintail  is  not  really  as  large 
as  the  mallard  but  it  is  about  four  inches  longer,  its  unusual  length 
being   due   to   its   having  a   long   swan-likie   neck   and   long   "pintail" 
feathers.     It  has  a  purplish  speculum  on  its  wings  and  more  or  less 
brown,  white  and  gray  upon  its  body. 

136.  WIDGEON.  Mareca   penelope.      19    inches   long.      Bill   blue 
tipped  with  black,  top  of  head  whitish  but  most  of  head  marked  with 
black.     Body  gray  with  wavy  black  markings,  russet  green  speculum 
on  black  and  white.     Rare. 

137.  BALD  PATE.     Anas  americana.     Nineteen  inches  long.     Top 
of  head  whitish  edged  with  green.     Bill  blue  tipped  with  black.     Plu- 
mage   mostly    grayish,    white    below,    green    speculum.      Make    a    whis- 
tling noise  in  flight.     Rob  other  ducks  of  their  food. 

135.  GADWALL.  Chaulelasmus  streperus.  20  inches  long.  A 
gray  duck  with  a  flat  crest.  Body  marked  with  black  and  white  lines 
across  the  gray.  White  below.  Rump  black.  Wings  black,  white  and 
brown. 

144.  WOOD  DUCK.     Aix  sponsa.  A  foot  and  a  half  long.     This 
has  been  called  the  best  dressed  bird  of  our  latitude.     Its  many  rich 
colors  and  its  crest  will  be  suflicient  to  identify  it.     It  has  a  variegated 
bill  and  a  purple  and  green  head  striped  with  white.     White  throat. 
Spotted   breast.      Body   many   colored.      It  nests  in  hollow   trees   and 
carries  its  young  in  its  bill  from  its  nest  to  the  water.     Rare. 

147.  CANVASBACK.  Aythya  vallisneria.  Twenty  to 
twenty-two  inches  long.  Head  and  upper  neck  dark  red.  Long  neck 
nearly  black.  Body  nearly  white.  Tail  dark  drab.  Eyes  red. 

146.  REDHEAD.  Aythya  americana.  Nineteen  inches  long.  Similar 
in  size  and  markings  to  the  canvasback  but  has  a  thicker  head  and  a 
shorter  bill,  the  head  rising  more  abruptly  from  the  base  of  the  bill. 
Breast  nearly  black,  but  white  under  parts.  Sides  and  back  gray, 
finely  waved  with  black. 

153.  BUFFLEHEAD  or  BUTTERBALL.  Charitonetta  albeola. 
Fifteen  inches  long.  It  has  a  very  large  head  for  so  small  a  duck 
and  therefore  named  for  the  buffalo.  Bill  short.  Prevailing  colors 
are  black  above  and  white  below.  Head  banded  with  white  though 
mostly  purplish.  Tail  gray.  Neck  and  sides  white.  Not  highly  prized. 

149.  BLUEBILL  or  SCAUP  DUCK.  Aythya  af finis.  Sixteen 
inches  long.  Bill  a  pale  blue.  Head  black  with  green  reflections. 
White  below  and  black  above  with  fine  wavy  barring.  Found  late  in 
the  fall  in  large  numbers. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  107 

167.  RUDDY  DUCK.  Erismatura  jamaicensis.  Fifteen  inches 
long.  Top  of  head  black  and  cheeks  white.  Brown  above.  Gray 
below.  Bill  blue  and  short.  Mostly  chestnut  colored  above.  A  good 
diver.  Often  carries  tail  erect  on  the  water. 

151.  GOLDEN-EYE.  Glangula  clangula  americana.  Head  dark 
green  with  a  white  spot  at  base  of  bill,  white  neck  and  breast.  Black 
above.  More  or  less  white  on  wing.  Female  with  much  brown  above. 
Sometimes  called  "whistlers". 

MERGANSERS  OR  FISH  DUCKS. 

129.  AMERICAN  MERGANSER.  Merganser  Americanus.  Over  two 
feet  long.     Called  "fish-duck"  because  of  diet  and  "saw-bill"  because 
of  tooth-like  projections  from  the  sides  of  its  narrow  bill.     Black  and 
white  above  and  white  below.     Head  black  with  greenish  reflections 
and  crested.    Bill  red.    Loves  cold  water. 

130.  RED-BREASTED  MERGANSER.  Merganser  serrator.     Near- 
ly two  feet  long.     Black  head  crested,  and  having  greenish  reflections. 
Black   back,    white   neck,    white    on    wings.      Body   gray,    brown    and 
buff.     Nearly  white  below.     Bill  not  flat  like  a  duck's  but  narrow  and 
edged  with  tooth-like  projections.     The  flesh  of  this  duck  is  generally 
highly  flavored  with  its  fishy  food. 

131.  HOODED     MERGANSER.     Lophodytes     cucullatus.     Seven- 
teen   inches   long.      Conspicuous   black   and   white   crest.      Black    and 
brown  above,  sides  brown,  white  below.     White  speculum.  Saw-billed. 
Too  pretty  a  bird  to  shoot  and  not  a  good  table  duck. 

GEESE. 

172.  CANADA  GOOSE.  Branta  Canadensis..  Three  feet  long. 
Black  head  and  neck  and  some  white  on  the  sides  of  the  head.  Gray 
body. 

169.  LESSER  SNOW  GOOSE  or  WHITE  BRANT.  About  two 
feet  long.  Plumagie  white  with  tips  of  wings  black. 

169a.  GREATER  SNOW  GOOSE  or  WHITE  BRANT.  Chen 
hyperborea  nivalis.  About  three  feet  long.  They  are  white  with  tips 
of  wings  black. 

SWANS. 

181.  TRUMPETER  SWAN.  Olor  buccinator.  Five  and  a  half 
feet  long.  All  white  with  black  feet  and  bill.  Very  long  neck.  Named 
from  its  bugle-like  note. 

180.  WHISTLING  SWAN.  Olor  ColumManus.  Four  and  a  half 
feet  long.  White  with  black  feet  and  bill  and  a  yellow  spot  in  front 
of  the  eyes. 


108  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

CANVASBACK  DUCK. 

What  a  reputation  this  duck  has!  But  like  every  other  good 
thing  it  has  its  imitation  as  well  as  its  reputation.  The  widgeon 
or  bald-pate  is  the  name  of  the  duck  that  is  often  sold  in  swell 
restaurants  for  the  canvasback  and  the  principal  difference  in 
taste  is  that  the  bald-pate  is  sweeter  and  tenderer.  Why  not? 
Does  not  the  canvasback  duck  dive  and  swim  to  the  bottom  oi  tne 
pond  to  pull  up  the  wild  celery  (eel  grass)  only  to  find  when  it 
reaches  the  surface  that  a  bald-pate  is  there  to  take  it  away  from 
him  and  eat  it"/  Thus  the  bald-pate  gets  the  celery  and  the  can- 
vasback gets  the  exercise,  iteaheads  too,  get  palmed  ott  as  can- 
vasuacks,  for  the  birds  resemble  eacn  other  so  much  that  wnen 
a  iew  o±  the  tell-taie  wing  leathers  are  pulled  out  of  the  redhead, 
an  expert  has  to  guess  them  apart.  As  far  as  good,  juicy  ducks 
go,  the  redhead,  baid-pate,  the  spoon-biil,  the  blue  bill,  the  mallard, 
the  teal  and  the  pin-tail  ail  have  admirers  who  prefer  them  to  the 
canvasback.  The  really  poor  duck  you  know  is  the  one  tnat 
eats  the  most  fishes  for  he  takes  the  fish  fiavor  and  chasing  them 
toughens  his  muscles. 

"Sweet  land  of  liberty!"  And  land  of  license  too.  How 
many  are  the  ducks  shot  in  the  springtime  when  they  are 
gentlest,  for  love  is  warming  in  their  Huffy  breasts  and  they  are 
choosing  their  mates  for  the  season.  Thin  and  tired  from  their 
long  migration,  the  pot-hunters  have  a  merry  springtime  knock- 
ing them  down.  Let  them  shoot  the  canvas-backs  in  the  fall,  if 
they  will.  They  will  earn  the  name  of  sportsmen  if  they  get  more 
than  they  can  carry,  for  the  canvasback  is  a  clever  and  watchful 
bird.  But  shooting  them  in  the  springtime?  It's  like  taking 
candy  from  a  baby. 

A  man  told  me  recently  that  he  never  shot  the  female  ducks, 
but  only  the  males  as  he  did  not  wish  to  break  up  their  nesting. 
He  is  a  very  wise  man  and  could  probably  tell  a  drone  from  a 
honey-bee  if  he  saw  them  flying  through  the  air.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  few  gunners  can  tell  them  apart  after  they  (the  ducks) 
are  dead.  So  imagination  and  self-deception  are  used  to  justify 
wrongdoing. 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  109 

AMERICAN   MERGANSER. 

Many  people  call  it  the  "Saw-bill  Duck,"  some  call  it  the 
"Fish  Duck"  and  others  the  " Shelldrake. "  None  of  the  names 
are  calculated  to  whet  one's  appetite,  yet  the  names  sound  far 
better  than  the  duck  tastes. 

Last  fall  a  friend  of  mine  came  proudly  up  the  street  with 
a  string  of  ducks  that  tested  his  strength.  Rushing  to  him  to  see 
what  he  had  I  found  no  two  alike.  There  were  a  mallard,  a 
green-winged  teal,  a  bald-pate,  a  pin-tail,  a  blue-bill,  a  redhead,  a 
canvas-back,  a  spoon-bill  and  a  merganser.  It  seemed  rather  odd 
that  there  should  be  no  duplication,  but  it  shows  how  thoroughly 
we  are  in  the  path  of  duck  migration. 

As  I  enthused  over  them  and  pointed  out  their  beauty  and 
peculiarities,  he  became  interested  and  as  I  gave  more  time  to 
the  merganser  than  all  the  others,  because  of  its  peculiar  bill 
and  flashy  colors,  he  thought  he  would  delight  me  by  offering  it  to 
me  for  my  supper.  He  did  that  very  thing!  Now,  few  delicacies 
are  sweeter  to  me  than  a  good,  fat,  juicy  wild  duck  done  just  so 
that  a  suggestion  of  red  blood  follows  the  knife  when  it  is  cut, 
but  my  admiration  for  a  merganser  ends  just  where  the  feathers 
penetrate  the  skin,  so  I  refused  to  rob  him  of  his  choicest  duck 
and  took  two  others  in  lieu  thereof,  namely  a  bald-pate  and  a  blue- 
bill.  Give  me  those  and  you  may  have  your  canvas-backs  and 
mallards. 

Why  does  the  merganser  taste  so?  Because  he  eats  small 
fishes  and  frogs,  and  fishes  and  frogs  like  onions  and  cabbage  are 
not  so  very  good  second-hand.  The  merganser  being  able  to  pur- 
sue and  catch  a  fish  under  water  becomes  very  muscular  and 
when  you  get  both  kinds  of  strength  in  your  meat,  it  becomes 
too  strong  for  any  use. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  merganser  nests 
very  rarely  below  the  line  of  the  British  possessions.  Mrs.  Mer- 
ganser's reputation  as  a  housewife  and  mother  is  above  reproach 
and  is  similar  to  that  of  the  wood  duck  that  goes  into  seclusion 
during  the  nesting  season,  using  a  tree-hole  for  a  home  and  lining 
it  with  the  down  she  plucks  from  her  own  breast.  Meanwhile  the 
old  man  goes  away  into  still  deeper  seclusion  and  changes  his 
pretty  garments  for  a  new  suit. 


110  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

Oh  I  fear  that  great  beauty  too  often  has  its  drawbacks. 
The  theory  of  aompensation  is  at  work  all  the  while. 

MALLARD. 

Probably  of  all  ducks  the  mallard  is  the  most  popular  in  this 
western  section  of  the  country.  This  is  due  in  part  to  its  size 
and  in  part  to  the  fact  that  it  is  just  as  finely  flavored  as  any 
of  them.  You  get  a  little  more  of  a  good  thing  when  you  get  a 
mallard.  The  same  ducks  in  different  sections  of  the  country  have 
different  food  values  for  .few  if  any  creatures  are  more  "What 
they  eat"  than  are  ducks.  A  celery-fed  duck  becomes  almost 
worthless  when  it  feeds  on  fish. 

Our  common  barnyard  duck  is  a  domesticated  mallard  and 
domestication  has  made  him  a  mormon  for  it  is  not  believed  that 
in  the  wild  state  they  mate  for  less  than  life. 

As  with  most  ducks  the  male  has  little  to  do  with  rearing 
the  young.  The  female  gathers  leaves,  grass  and  the  like,  for 
a  nest,  lines  it  with  down  from  her  own  breast  and  leaves  it  only 
at  short  intervals  during  the  breeding  season.  The  drake  mean- 
while follows  a  duck  habit  and  goes  into  seclusion  for  a  moult 
and  it  is  said  that  for  a  while  he  is  not  able  to  fly  at  all. 

They  migrate  by  sexes,  the  males  preceding  the  females  who 
follow  with  their  broods.  Foxy  sportsmen  often  pride  themselves 
on  the  fact  that  they  shoot  only  males  which  is  often  true  dur- 
ing the  male  migration. 

The  ponds  of  the  interior  are  fine  feeding  grounds  for  them 
and  they  may  often  be  seen  tipping  up  but  rarely  if  ever  diving 
for  buds,  seeds,  grains  and  small  mollusks.  If  you  see  them  dive 
you  may  be  quite  sure  that  they  are  trying  to  avoid  danger.. 

They  are  very  fond  of  the  farmer's  corn  but  the  farmer 
seems  never  to  care.  He  has  his  gun  loaded  for  the  hawks  and 
owls  that  are  doing  him  far  greater  service  and  far  less  damage. 
Of  course  the  mallard's  fondness  for  the  farmer's  corn  is  all  in 
favor  of  fine  flesh  and  you  may  be  sure  that  a  corn-fed  mallard 
is  a  luxury. 

Mallards  are  sportive,  alert  and  wary,  so  much  so  that  they 
do  not  descend  at  once  to  the  water  as  the  teals  do  but  circle 
about  over  the  sedges  to  be  sure  that  there  is  no  lurking  danger. 


Herons  and  Bitterns. 


Order,  Herodiones. 
Family,  Ardeidae. 


191.  LEAST  BITTERN.  Botaurus  exilis.  Almost  fourteen  inches 
long.  A  suggestion  of  a  crest.  Head  and  upper  body  black  with 
greenish  sheen.  Body  brown,  red,  buff,  green  and  yellow  in  vary- 
ing shades.  Feet,  bill  and  eyes  greenish  yellow.  Found  about  creeks 
and  marshes.  Distinctly  a  marsh  wader. 

190.  AMERICAN  BITTERN.  Botaurus  lentiginosus.  Two  and  a 
half  feet  long.  Legs  long  and  unfeathered  as  befits  a  wading  bird. 
Four  toes.  Long  bill  and  head  suitable  for  frog-catching.  Mixed 
brown,  black,  buff,  slate  and  yellow  in  color.  Throat  white.  Called 
also  "thunder-pump"  and  "stakedriver"  from  its  cry. 

194.  GREAT  BLUE  HERON  or  BLUE  CRANE.  Ardea  Herodias. 
Nearly  four  feet  long.  Subdued  blue  above.  White  head  with  black 
patch  above  the  eye  running  into  a  pretty  crest.  General  characteristics 
of  wading  birds  with  long  legs  and  yellow  bill.  Larger  than  the  Ameri- 
can bittern.  Black  legs  and  feet.  Long  bill,  yellow. 

201.  LITTLE  GREEN  HERON.     Ardea  virescens.  About  a  foot 
and  a  half  long.     Crested  and  plumed.     White  throat  and  a  mixture 
of  green,  yellow  and  brown  upon  the  body.     Dark  green  head  and  bill 
with  chestnut  nieck.     Found  like  others  of  its  kind  along  the  edges  of 
marshes. 

202.  BLACK  CROWNED  NIGHT  HERON.    Nycticorax  nycticorax 
naevius.    About  two  feet  long.     Conspicuous  white  trailing  crest  during 
nesting.    Upper  parts  dull  black  especially  crown  and  back,  under  parts 
white  including   throat,   middle   parts   gray.      Bill  nearly  black,   eyes 
red,  legs  yellow. 

AMERICAN  BITTERN. 

If  a  person  should  try  to  describe  every  little  change  of  color 
in  this  bird,  he  would  have  to  describe  each  separate  feather,  yet 
he  is  easily  identified  for  he  is  the  most  common  of  our  big  waders. 

As  you  are  riding  along  in  the  train,  passing  a  lake  or  a  small 


112  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

stream  edged  with  sedges,  you  will  often  see  one  ' '  fly  up  the  creek ' ' 
(that's  another  name  he  has.)  He  is  scared  half  to  death  but  at 
that  he  flies  rather  leisurely  as  he  does  everything  and  soon  drops 
to  hiding  into  the  rushes  a  few  rods  away. 

He  is  ' '  patience  on  a  monument ' '  and  thinks  nothing  of  stand- 
ing on  one  leg  for  two  hours  waiting  for  a  frog  or  a  snake  or  a 
lizard  or  a  tadpole  to  come  within  reach,  when  like  a  flash  the 
jig  is  up  and  the  frog  is  down.  He  is  named  also  the  '* thunder 
pump"  for  the  reason  that  the  "boom"  of  the  bittern  sounds 
like  an  old  broken  down  pump  trying  to  raise  water.  "Stake- 
driver"  is  another  name,  and  "Bog-bull,"  and  there  are  others. 

Of  course  you  don't  have  to  ride  in  a  railroad  train  to  see 
them.  It  will  pay  you  to  make  them  a  friendly  call.  Perhaps 
you  could  find  a  crude  nest  on  the  ground  at  the  edge  of  the  marsh 
and  if  you  should,  you  would  be  well  paid  for  your  tramp. 

Often  on  a  short  trip  by  rail  I  have  identified  from  forty  to 
fifty  different  kinds  of  birds.  It  is  good  recreation  and  makes 
the  time  and  journey  pass  quickly.  Often  you  must  recognize 
your  bird  at  long  range  solely  by  its  flight  but  many  birds  taken 
by  surprise  will  scurry  from  the  side  of  the  track  and  give  you  a 
good  view  of  them.  You  will  cover  a  large  territory  in  that  way 
and  reach  the  water  birds  as  well  as  the  song  birds. 

Watch  for  a  bittern.  If  you  keep  your  lamps  lighted  you  will 
see  him  on  almost  any  trip  with  his  flat  outstretched  head  and  his 
long  legs  hanging  out  behind  as  a  rudder,  sailing  over  the  rushes 
by  the  roadside. 


BELTED    KINGFISHER 

(UPPER  FIGURE,  FEMALE;    LOWER  FIGURE,  MALE) 
Order  —  COCCYGES         Family  —  ALCEDINID/E 
Genus— CERYLE  Species— ALCYON 


Cranes. 


Order,  Paludicolae. 
Family,  Gruidae. 


206.  SANDHILL  CRANE.  Grus  Mexicana.  Forty-four  inches 
long  with  red  skin  conspicuous  on  Its  head.  Its  plumage  is  gray, 
wings  darkest.  Its  beak  is  long  and  sharp.  Legs  very  long  for  wa- 
ding. 

204.  WHOOPING  CRANE.  (White  Crane.)  Grus  Americana. 
Fifty  inches  long.  It  has  white  plumage  with  black  wing-feathers. 
Like  the  sandhill  crane  it  has  red  skin  on  its  head.  Legs  veryv  long 
for  wading. 

SANDHILL  CRANE. 

To  be  wandering  along  the  edge  of  an  inland  lake  and  sudden- 
ly see  the  neck  of  a  sandhill  crane  rise  out  of  the  rushes  is  an  ex- 
perience that  will  never  be  forgotten.  There  is  something  snaky 
about  it.  The  bird  itself  is  almost  a  freak  of  nature,  absolutely 
without  grace  yet  suggestive  enough  to  appeal  to  the  orientals 
along  with  the  dragon  as  means  of  expressing  their  artistic  feel- 
ings. They  always  look  best  on  a  cloisonne  vase.  Last  year  at 
Lake  Andes  flocks  of  them  were  seen  flying  in  single  file,  their 
long  necks  piercing  the  air  and  their  long  legs  dragging  almost 
horizontally  behind  them.  Great  numbers  of  them  are  often  seen 
during  their  migration  sailing  very  high  in  the  air  and  shrieking 
a  note  that  will  almost  give  you  the  shivers. 

They  are  fighters  of  the  highest  order  and  use  their  long 
pointed  beaks  as  spears,  often  driving  them  clear  through  the 
bodies  of  their  enemies.  In  the  sandhills  of  Nebraska,  the  in- 
habitants prize  them  as  a  table  luxury,  claiming  that  their  flesh  is 
savory  especially  in  the  fall.  Surely  one  of  them  would  make  a 
meal  for  the  neighbors. 

With  all  their  awkwardness  they  are  an  aristocratic  look- 
ing bird.  You  respect  their  size  and  they  are  credited  with  hay- 


114  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

ing  the  very  aristocratic  tendency  of  getting  pretty  giddy  at 
times.  Along  about  pairing  off  time  they  have  unusual  demonstra- 
tions. Very  likely  the  Sioux  Indians  learned  their  ghost  dances 
from  them  for  one  is  a  repetition  of  the  other.  They  will  dance 
in  circles  and  scream  and  whirl  about  until  they  fall  to  earth 
exhausted.  Even  the  ladies  indulge  in  these  dances  and  are  rather 
forward  with  their  courting.  Oh,  in  birdland  they  say  that  the 
lady  phalarope  does  all  the  courting.  She  is  the  real  new  woman. 
Two  large  soiled  white  eggs  laid  upon  a  floating  nest  of  dead 
rushes  was  what  I  once  found  on  the  edge  ot  a  lake  in  Nebraska 
and  I  have  often  wondered  what  the  mother  crane  did  with  her 
legs  when  she  sat  upon  her  eggs. 


Coots  and  Rails. 


Order,  Paludicolae. 
Family,  Rallidae. 

221.  AMERICAN  COOT.  Fulica  Americana.  About  fifteen  inches 
long.  Stout  white  bill  with  brown  spot  near  the  end.  Color  solidly 
dark  lead  color  almost  a  black.  Are  readily  tamed  and  become  very 
sociable. 

212.  VIRGINIA  RAIL.  Rallus  Virginianus.  About  the  size  of 
the  robin  but  longer  legged.  Olive  brown  above.  Chestnut  on  wings. 
Dark  cheeks,  white  chin.  Breast  brown.  Wings  short  and  flies  poorly. 
A  bird  of  the  marshes.  Very  shy. 

214.  CAROLINA  RAIL.  Porzana  Carolina.  A  little  smaller  than 
the  robin.  Brown  above,  gray  breast  and  white  belly.  Forehead 
black,  throat  black,  bill  yellow.  A  marsh  bird  with  fairly  long  legs. 
Very  shy  and  generally  keeps  concealed  in  tall  grass  or  reeds. 

COOT. 

Coots  and  grebes  are  all  of  them  grouped  in  popular  fancy 
under  the  name  "mudhens"  and  "hell-divers."  They  are  the 
birds  that  you  have  often  seen  upon  the  edges  of  ponds  sunning 
themselves  and  you  very  likely  thought  that  they  were  ducks. 
You  can  readily  distinguish  the  American  coot  by  his  black  plu- 
mage and  his  white  pointed  bill.  If  you  should  eat  one  you  might 
"confound"  him  but  never  with  a  duck. 

In  New  England  they  often  speak  of  a  worthless  fellow  as 
a  "poor  coot"  but  whatever  of  ill  you  may  say  of  him  when  he 
is  on  land,  you  can  never  accuse  him  of  being  slow  or  awkward 
when  in  his  native  element.  If  by  any  chance  you  pride  yourself 
upon  your  ability  as  a  marksman,  the  coot  may  be  able  to  convince 
you  to  the  contrary  for  if  the  word  of  some  sportsmen  can  be 
believed,  the  coot  can  actually  dodge  a  bullet.  Upon  almost 
any  of  the  inland  prairie  lakes  they  may  be  seen  either  resting 
upon  some  projection  in  the  shallow  water  or  bobbing  their  heads 
backward  and  forward  as  they  swim  to  deeper  water  to  find  good 
diving. 


Phalarope. 


Order,  Limicolae. 
Family,  Phalaropodidae. 


224.  WILSON'S  PHALAROPE.  Steganopus  tricolor.  Nine  Inches 
long.  Very  long,  delicate  bill.  Swimmers  as  well  as  waders.  Blue- 
gray  above.  Brown  below.  Black  stripes  along  tbe  sides  of  head  and 
neck.  Female  does  the  love-making.  The  male  does  the  nest  build- 
ing and  incubating.  The  lady  phalarope  is  the  real  new  woman  among 
the  birds. 


Snipe  and  Sandpipers. 


Order,  Limicolae. 
Family,  Scolopacidae. 


264.  CURLEW.  Numenius  Longirostris.  Length  nearly  two 
feet  of  which  about  seven  inches  is  bill.  Mostly  buff-colored  with 
irregular  streaks  of  black  and  light  and  dark  chestnut.  Bill  curves 
downward. 

230.  JACK  SNIPE  or  WILSON'S  SNIPE.  Gallinago  delicata. 
Eleven  inches  long.  Bill  long  and  delicate.  Upper  parts  striped  with 
buff  and  dull  drab.  Stripes  black  above.  White  below.  Plumage 
generally  striped  and  spotted.  Rather  common  around  ponds  and 
lakes  where  he  probes  for  food. 

254.  GREATER      YELLOW      LEGS.        Totanus      melanoleucus. 
Thirteen   and   one   half   inches   long.      Black   mottled   with   gray   and 
white  above.     Tail  mostly  white  though  marked   with   gray.     White 
below  spotted  and  barred  with  black. 

255.  LESSER  YELLOW  LEGS.  Totanus  flavipes.  Ten  and  one  half 
inches  long.     Black   above  with   white   marking.     White  below  with 
black   marking.      Tail   white.      A    common    wader.      Almost   identical 
with  the  large  variety  except  as  to  size. 

228.  WOODCOCK.  Philohela  minor.  Eleven  inches  long.  Very 
long  bill.  Prominent  eyes.  Like  the  undertaker  you  can  track  him 
by  his  holes  in  the  ground.  Mottled  brown  above.  Brown  below.  A 
favorite  with  hunters.  Legs  very  yellow. 

242.  LEAST  SANDPIPER.  Tringa  minutilla.  Six  inches  long. 
A  common  wader.  Best  identified  by  its  size.  Dusky  brown  above. 
Black  toward  the  tail.  Gray  and  white  below.  Active  and  easily 
scared.  Generally  seen  in  flocks. 

261.  UPLAND  PLOVER  (Bartramian  Sandpiper).  Bartramia 
Longicauda.  Twelve  inches  long.  Brown  and  gray  above  with  more 
or  less  black  barring.  Beneath  white  with  buff  stain.  Bill  and  legs 
yellow  and  long.  Generally  found  on  the  open  prairies  away  from 
water. 


118  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

263.  SPOTTED  SANDPIPER  called  "Tip-up".  Actitis  macularia. 
Seven  and  one  half  inches  long.  Brownish-olive  above,  white  below 
and  spotted.  The  little  fellows  teeter  up  and  down  as  they  walk 
about  the  edges  of  ponds  searching  for  food. 

CURLEW. 

A  few  years  ago  when  the  food  value  of  game  birds  appealed 
more  strongly  to  me  than  their  aesthetic  value,  I  was  shooting 
ducks  on  the  lakes  in  the  sandhills  of  Nebraska.  As  a  curlew 
flew  over  I  took  a  long-distance  shot  at  it  and  crippled  it.  Such 
a  cry  as  it  gave  I  have  never  heard  before  nor  since.  It  was 
such  cries  as  that  that  caused  the  ancients  to  believe  in  the  trans- 
migration of  souls. 

Presently  curlews  began  to  come  from  every  direction  and 
to  fly  in  a  circle  above  me,  setting  up  such  a  weeping  and  wail- 
ing that  I  would  have  given  my  day  of  anticipated  sport  if  I 
could  have  raised  the  wounded  bird  to  the  air  again.  Shy  and 
wary  almost  beyond  belief  they  seemed  to  lose  their  fear  and 
come  to  their  wounded  comrade  with  an  appeal  to  take  their  lives 
as  well. 

What  on  earth  can  be  done  with  a  wounded  bird?  Can  you 
look  it  in  the  eye  and  wring  its  neck?  A  man  who  can  do  that  is 
fit  for  treason.  And  the  echo  of  that  cry!  Twenty  years  has 
not  dulled  it. 

An  aquatic  bird  with  bill  adapted  to  fishing  for  small  sea 
food,  it  strangely  comes  in  great  numbers  to  spend  the  summer 
in  the  loneliest  part  of  the  prairies,  the  sandhills  of  Nebraska 
and  the  Bad  Lands  of  Dakota.  It  seems  to  court  solitude,  to  steal 
from  the  rapture  of  the  lonely  shore  to  the  pleasure  of  the  path- 
less prairies  and  the  silence  of  the  inland  sand  dunes.  Surely 
no  bird  is  better  suited  to  be  the  genius  of  solitary  places. 

UPLAND  PLOVER  (BARTRAMIAN  SANDPIPER). 

It  seems  almost  like  fate  that  a  bird  like  the  plover  that 
has  done  so  much  for  man  should  be  so  rapidly  passing.  In  the 
grasshopper  times  no  agency  was  so  effective  and  none  cost  as 
little.  It  was  worth  its  weight  in  gold  and  I  think  that  is  the  rea- 
son that  one  variety  is  called  the  golden  plover.  Anyone  who  has 
been  in  Dakota  long,  can  remember  when  there  was  a  plover  on 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  119 

almost  every  fence  post.  He  can  remember  the  plover  call,  the 
flight  on  trembling  wings  and  as  he  alighted  on  the  post,  how 
carefully  he  adjusted  his  wings  as  though  every  feather  must 
be  perfectly  placed.  What  slender  legs  and  tiny  neck.  What  a 
prim  little  body!  But  how  rare! 

Sportsmen  have  bagged  about  all  of  them  and  would  go  on 
bagging  and  bagging  until  there  is  never  a  quail  or  a  chicken  or 
a  plover  left.  The  plover  should  be  restored  to  his  rightful  place 
in  the  field.  How  often  you  have  seen  it  fly  about  the  dog  in 
order  to  entice  him  away  from  either  its  nest  or  its  young.  Nest, 
did  I  say?  Hardly  a  nest  but  a  little  depression  wallowed  in 
the  grass  and  jam  tried  full  with  four  good  big  pointed  eggs  that 
seem  to  me  to  be  every  bit  as  big  as  the  bird's  body.  I  would  not 
believe  for  a  long  time  that  the  little  fellow  laid  the  muddy  look- 
ing things.  What  little  rolls  of  fuzz  come  out  of  them  too! 
Pretty  little  babies  they  are — one  of  the  triumphs  of  creative  art. 
The  plover  is  a  dainty  morsel  for  the  epicure  but  only  a 
mouthful  for  the  glutton  who  generally  gets  him.  It  is  murder 
to  kill  a  plover,  murder  in  the  first  degree,  with  malice  afore- 
thought, as  cool  and  deliberate  as  the  aim  that  lays  him  low. 
Civilization  (if  it  is)  takes  its  toll.  As  it  comes  westward  it 
carries  evil  and  death  with  it  and  mars  and  scars  the  beautiful  face 
of  things.  No  more  rag-dolls  for  our  babies  that  they  may  have 
something  to  make  their  little  minds  work  (The  little  boy  in 
"Helen's  Babies"  didn't  like  "boughten  dollies")  but  they  open 
and  close  their  eyes  now  and  when  you  press  them  they  cry 
''Mamma,"  "Mamma".  In  a  little  while  they'll  sulk  and  get 
to  swearing. 

Let  us  make  a  plea  for  the  plover,  let  us  make  it  possible  for 
the  children  yet  unborn  to  hear  its  whistle  upon  the  moorland 
calling  them  forth  to  tune  their  hearts  with  Nature.  Let  them 
no  more  hear  the  "Bang!  Bang!  Bang!"  that  all  too  soon  is  mak- 
ing a  silent  prairie. 


Avocet. 


Order,  Limicolae. 
Family,  Recurvirostridae. 


225.  AMERICAN  AVOCET.  Recurvirostra  Americana.  Sixteen 
inches  long.  Very  long  bill  curved  upward.  Long-leggied  wader. 
Head  and  neck  pinkish  brown.  Wings  black  and  white.  A  very 
pretty,  refined  and  delicate  bird. 


Plovers. 


Order,  Limicolae. 
Family,  Charadriidae. 


272.  GOLDEN     PLOVER.      Charadrius     dominions.    Ten   inches 
long.      Yellow   and   white   spots   on   dull  black   above.      Black  below. 
Black  throat  and  face. 

273.  KILDEER.     Aegialitis  vocifera.    About     ten     inches     long. 
Can  be  recognized  by  his  call  which  he  constantly  repeats  "killdeer, 
kilideer,   killdeer."     The  two   black  bands   on   white  breast  serve  to 
identify  him.    Long  legs.    Fast  runner. 


Grouse  and  Quails. 


Order,   Gallinae. 
Family,  Tetraonidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  These  are  the  wild  types  of  our  do- 
mestic chicken.  They  have  heavy,  thick  breasts,  and  short  wings 
used  rapidly  in  flight.  Their  breeding  habits  are  similar  to  those  of 
domestic  fowl.  They  are  most  valuable  game  birds  for  food.  Great 
destroyers  of  hoppers  and  bugs. 

305.  PRAIRIE  CHICKEN.  Tympanuchus  Americanus.  A  foot 
and  a  half  long.  Heavy  breast.  Light  brown  above.  Heavily  barred 
with  black.  Dull  white  below  barred  with  brown.  Small  bunches  of 
large  feathers  hang  from  either  side  of  the  neck  of  the  male  bird. 
Has  air-sacs  on  the  sides  of  throat.  The  favorite  game  bird  of  the 
west. 

308b.  SHARP  TAILED  GROUSE.  Pedioecetes  phasianellus 
campestris.  Generally  a  little  smaller  and  lighter  than  the  prairie 
chicken.  Dull  whitish  below.  Has  no  extra  large  feathers  on  neck 
as  the  prairie  chicken  has.  In  other  respects  very  similar. 

309.  SAGE  HEN.  Centrocereus  urophasianus.  About  two  feet 
long.  Mottled  gray  above  barred  with  brown  and  black,  yellow  sacs 
on  sides  of  throat.  Larger  than  others  of  its  kind.  Most  common  in 
Wyoming  and  west  of  the  Missouri  River.  Flesh  tastes  strongly  of 
wild  sage  except  whien  very  young.  Color  drab,  much  mixed  and 
barred. 

289.  BOB  WHITE.  Colinus  Virginianus.  About  ten  inches  long. 
Male  has  white  throat,  female  has  yellow  throat.  Buff  and  brown 
above  and  below  with  more  or  less  black  markings  above.  Calls  his 
name. 

QUAIL  or  BOB  WHITE. 

Bob  white  is  as  trim  a  bird  as  you  will  see  in  a  Sabbath 
day's  journey  or  even  in  a  month  of  Sundays.  It  is  too  bad  for 
him  that  he  is  so  plump  and  still  worse  that  he  is  so  delicate  a 
morsel.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  is  only  a  morsel  at  best.  Surely 
quails  must  breed  very  fast  to  perpetuate  themselves  for  there  is 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  123 

no  bird  that  is  in  such  constant  danger.  First  of  all,  they  nest 
upon  the  ground  and  lay  white  eggs.  That  means  that  snakes  and 
squirrels  have  easy  times  finding  them.  Then  in  winter  they 
huddle  together  to  keep  warm,  sitting  in  a  compact  circle  with 
their  tails  together,  and  they  are  often  buried  beneath  the  snow 
and  smothered.  No  bird  is  hunted  by  man  more  than  they 
are  so  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  must  lay  a  nest  full  of  eggs 
and  if  the  mother  is  shot  the  little  widower  must  climb  upon 
the  nest  and  play  mother.  Pot-shooting  is  easy  with  them  for 
their  great  fondness  for  each  other  causes  them  to  keep  well 
huddled,  but  no  true  sportsman  could  be  guilty  of  taking  a  shot 
at  a  flock  sitting  upon  the  ground.  Why  even  the  birds  known 
as  fly-catchers  catch  their  flies  only  on  the  wing.  Hunting- 
madness  seems  to  be  on  the  increase  and  unless  something  is  done 
to  check  it  our  game  birds  will  be  reduced  to  such  small  num- 
bers that  the  day's  shooting  will  bring  small  returns. 

We  are  too  ready  to  overlook  the  aesthetic  value  of  game  birds. 
Some  of  our  wild  ducks  are  of  wonderful  beauty.  In  fact,  it 
is  doubtful  if  the  wood-duck  has  a  rival.  And  bob  white!  Who 
says  he  is  not  a  work  of  art?  He  is  to  birds  what  the  speckled 
trout  is  to  fishes. 

I  should  hate  to  think  that  the  time  is  near  when  I  shall  not 
see  now  and  then  a  quail  running  in  the  roadside  ahead  of  my 
carriage  and  actually  jumping  to  one  side  as  I  pass. 

Bob  white  whistles  his  own  name  and  should  always  be 
called  by  the  name  he  chooses  for  himself. 


Doves  and  Pigeons. 


Order,  Columbae. 
Family,  Columbidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  "Dove-color"  or  soft  irridescent  brown- 
ish drab.  Rarely  seen  alone,  generally  in  pairs  or  flocks.  Rapid 
fliers.  Two  white  eggs  at  a  sitting.  Can  be  recognized  from  similar- 
ity to  our  common  pigeon.  They  have  very  large  crops  for  birds  of 
their  size  and  live  mostly  on  the  seeds  of  weeds.  They  are  the  far- 
mer's best  friend. 

316.  MOURNING  DOVE.  (Turtle  Dove.)  Zenaidura  Macroura. 
Length  twelve  inches.  Bluish  drab  or  "dove  color"  above.  Breast 
lighter.  A  sheen  on  neck  the  color  of  the  iris  flower.  Black  bill. 
Red  feet. 

315.  PASSENGER  PIGEON.  Ectopistes  migratorius.  So  rare 
that  a  description  is  not  needed.  The  bird  is  almost  extinct  though 
men  living  today  can  remember  when  flocks  of  them  almost  obscured 
the  sunlight.  Their  nesting  in  colonies  made  them  easy  prey  for 
gunners. 

MOUENING  DOVE  (TURTLE  DOVE). 

There  are  birds  as  well  as  blossoms  that  follow  in  the  trail 
of  the  traveler,  and  many  of  them  have  shared  with  the  settler 
the  difficulties  and  the  dangers  of  readjustment.  How  much 
longer,  I  wonder,  will  it  take  the  mourning  dove  to  learn  that  she 
must  build  a  better  nest  if  she  would  rear  her  young  where  the 
Dakota  zephyrs  outmoan  her?  Thousands  of  their  nests  are 
scattered  by  "every  stormy  wind  that  blows,"  and  many  a  pair 
of  bare  babies  fall  to  earth,  never  to  rise  again.  It  doubtless  took 
them  decades  to  become  "as  wise  as  serpents"  and  to  change  the 
location  of  their  "wickyups"  from  the  ground  to  the  trees  in 
order  to  save  their  babies  from  being  swallowed  alive,  and  by  the 
time  they  learn  the  capers  of  our  winds,  nature  may  temper  the 
storms  nnt.il  they  become  as  "harmless  as  doves."  The  winds 
can't  blow  always,  you  know.  Nothing  does. 


BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST  125 

The  dove  and  his  mate  are  more  conitant  than  you  and 
your  shadow,  for  they  are  chummy  in  the  darkest  days,  and  I 
think  if  Lovey  should  die  Dovey  would  die,  too.  Don't  you? 
Did  you  ever  see  them  billing  and  cooing?  No?  Then  you  don't 
know  what  love  is. 

Next  to  loving,  doves  like  weed  seed  and  nine  thousand  seeds 
of  ragweed  or  hawkweed  or  foxtail  or  pigeon  grass  are  often 
gathered  by  a  dove  in  a  day.  On  a  single  Dakota  farm  a  ton  of 
weed  seed  goes  to  furnish  a  season's  food  for  the  doves.  Alas,  the 
farmers  never  pay  the  dove  debt.  It  is  a  charge,  I  fear,  a  charge 
of  shot,  that  the  dove  too  often  gets,  for  there  is  almost  a  whole 
mouthful  of  meat  on  the  little  fellow's  breast,  don't  you  know? 

It  is  too  bad  that  they  are  so  trustful.  And  how  "ready  the 
mother  is  to  sacrifice  her  life  for  the  little  ones !  If  you  approach 
her  nest  while  she  has  her  two  white  eggs  or  her  fledgelings  under 
her  wings,  she  will  tumble  to  earth,  as  much  as  to  say,  "Take  me! 
See,  I  cannot  fly!"  and  if  you  follow  her  she  will  lure  you  away 
where  you  belong,  for  you  have  little  right  to  intrude  upon  her 
nursery. 

The  dove  isn't  vain,  he  isn't  pretty  enough.  He  is  content 
just  to  be  good.  He  is  so  awkward  that  if  the  wind  blows  at  all 
he  has  all  he  can  do  to  keep  his  balance  on  a  fence  wire.  He  is 
not  very  smart,  either,  and  is  generally  at  the  foot  of  his  class  in 
school,  but  he  is  industrious,  and  he  is  good  and  that  is  something, 
isn't  it? 

In  "Locksley  Hall"  it  says: 

"In  the  spring  a  fuller  crimson  comes  upon  the  robin's  breast; 
In  the  spring  the  wanton  lapwing  gets  himself  another  crest; 
In  the  spring  a  livelier  iris  comes  upon  the  burnished  dove; 
In  the  spring  a  young  man's  fancy  lightly  turns  to  thoughts  oi 

love." 

You  see  that  the  dove,  with  the  awakened  world,  feels  the 
spirit  of  the  springtime,  for  when  he  comes  there  is  "calling, 
cooing,  wooing  everywhere,"  and  he  is  always  the  dove  of  peace, 
the  bearer  of  the  myrtle. 


Vultures. 


Order,  Raptores. 
Family,   Cathartidae. 


325.  TURKEY  VULTURE.  Cathartes  Aura.  Two  and  one-half 
feet  long.  A  scavenger  among  the  birds,  the  "buzzard"  is  beautiful 
in  invierse  ratio  to  its  distance  from  you.  As  it  soars  on  easy  flight 
very  high  above  you  it  is  grace  itself.  Near  you  it  is  repulsive.  Its 
head  is  unfeathered,  its  color  black,  and  its  habits  untidy.  It  resides 
where  it  can  find  the  most  carrion. 


Hawks  and  Eagles, 


Order,  Raptores^ 
Family,  Falconidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Large,  ferocious  birds  with  curved  talons 
and  beak  for  grasping  and  tearing  their  prey.  They  feed  upon 
gophers,  field  mice,  birds,  snakes,  lizards,  frogs  and  grasshoppers 
with  an  occasional  meal  of  domestic  fowl,  that  delicacy  being  a 
favorite  meal  only  of  Cooper's  hawk,  the  sharp-shinned  hawk  and 
the  goshawk. 

360.  SPARROW  HAWK.  Falco  sparverius.  The  size  of  a  robin. 
A  common  prairie  hawk.  Cheeks  with  black  stripes.  Barred  brown 
above.  Top  of  head  blue.  Cries  "killy,  killy." 

331.  MARSH  HARRIER.   Circus  hudsonius.   Twenty  inches  long. 
A  ruff  about  the  face  like  an  owl's.     Brownish  gray  streaked  with 
white  above,   with   white  patch   on  lower  back.     Bristles  at  base  of 
bill.     Under  parts  white  specked  with  brown.     Flies  low  and  slowly 
over  marshes.    A  very  valuable  hawk  and  the  farmer's  friend. 

339.  RED  SHOULDERED  HAWK.  Buteo  lineatus.  Eighteen 
inches  long.  Dull  red  breast  and  shoulders  lightly  barred.  Darker 
above.  Black  tail,  barred  with  white. 

337b.  RED-TAILED  HAWK.  Buteo  borealis  calurus.  Twenty 
inches  long.  Dull  red  tail,  banded  near  the  end  with  black  or  brown 
and  white.  Brown  above,  dull  white  or  buff  below;  varies  greatly  in 
plumage. 

333.  COOPER'S    HAWK.      Acdpiter    Cooperii.     Sixteen     inches 
long.      Our    common    "chicken    hawk."      White    below    spotted    with 
brown.     Black  on  top  of  head.     Back  bluish  gray.     Tail  with  three 
or  four  black  bands  and  rounded  at  the  end.     Tip  white.     Should  be 
shot  if  any  hawks  deserve  shooting. 

334.  AMERICAN  GOSHAWK.  Acdpiter  atricapillus.   Twenty  two 
inches  long.     Whitish  below  with  irregular  gray  markings.     Bluish- 
drab  above.     Black  on  head.     Tail  banded  below.    A  first  class  villain. 

332.  SHARP-SHINNED  HAWK.  Acdpiter  velox.   An  inch  longer 
than  the  robin.     Dull  bluish  brown  above.     White  below  with  brown 


128  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

spots  and  bars.  Tail  with  three  or  four  bands  of  black  and  white 
at  the  tip  with  short  wings  and  long  tail,  he  is  a  rapid  dodger  And 
a  terror  to  small  birds.  He  needs  a  gun. 

342.  SWAINSON'S  HAWK.  Buteo  Swainsonii.  Twenty  inches 
long.  A  prairie  hawk.  White  beneath  with  brown  band  across  its, 
breast.  Throat  white.  Tail  fully  banded.  One  of  the  most  valuable 
birds  on  earth  and  perfectly  harmless. 

327.  SWALLOW-TAILED  KITE.  Elanoides  forficatus.  Twenty- 
one  inches  long.  Blue-black  above  except  head.  Head  and  under- 
neath pure  white.  Tail  forked. 

348.  ROUGH-LEGGED   HAWK.      Archibuteo   ferrugineus.   Twen- 
ty-two and   a  half  inches  long.     White  below  streaked  with   brown, 
especially    on    flanks.     Reddish     brown     above.     Tail     white.     Called 
"squirrel  hawk." 

349.  GOLDEN  EAGLE.     Aquila  chrysaetus.     Thirty-three  inches 
long.    Head    and    neck    golden    on    the   back.      Plumage    brown.    Tail 
mostly    white.      Legs    with    white    feathers.      Young    birds    generally 
darker  than  older  ones. 

352.  BALD  EAGLE.  Haliaetus  leucocephalus.  Thirty-three  inches 
long.  Head  and  neck  white.  Body  brownish.  Beak  yellow.  Tail 
rounded.  Our  national  bird. 

GOLDEN  EAGLE. 

This,  the  king  of  birds,  favorite  of  Jove,  the  thunderer, 
messenger  of  that  great  god  of  the  Romans  who  sat  upon  Olympus' 
height,  that  was  borne  by  Roman  soldiers  upon  the  tops  of  their 
standards  that  like  flags  were  carried  before  the  Roman  legions, 
was  the  type  of  all  that  was  watchful,  brave  and  daring. 

The  Indian  takes  " Eagle"  for  his  name,  wears  its  feathers 
on  his  war  dress  and  tips  his  arrows  with  them  so  that  they 
will  fly  straight  to  the  heart  of  his  enemy. 

The  eagle  whose  picture  adorns  our  coins  can  whip  any 
living  thing  of  its  size.  He  is  a  fit  emblem  of  our  national  life,  for 
he  is  quiet  and  peaceful  except  in  matters  of  business,  when  he 
always  gets  what  he  goes  after. 

On  the  edge  of  the  Bad  Lands,  I  once  climbed  a  precipice  to 
see  an  eagle's  nest.  It  was  hard  and  dangerous  climbing  and  I 
should  never  dare  do  it  again.  At  last  I  reached  the  eyrie  where 
two  very  young  eaglets  were  resting  in  their  feather-lined  nest 
of  coarse  twigs  laid  flat  upon  the  edge  of  the  precipice.  I  was 


BLUE   JAY 

Order— PASSERES  Family  — Co  RVID/E 

Genus— CYANOCITTA  Species  -CRISTATA 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  129 

watching  the  curved  beaks  of  the  eaglets  when  I  heard  a  rush  of 
wings  like  the  storm-wind  and  a  snap  of  the  old  eagle's  beak 
that  was  as  loud  as  the  crack  of  a  pistol.  I  had  seen  him  circling 
a  mile  or  more  above  me  but  I  did  not  dream  that  his  eagle  eye 
was  keeping  watch  over  that  little  speck  below.  I  clutched  the 
harder  to  the  walls  of  the  precipice  and  began  my  retreat  expect- 
ing every  minute  to  hear  the  whirlwind  of  those  mighty  wings 
again  or  to  have  my  brains  hanging  from  that  hooked  beak. 

Eagles  are  getting  scarcer  every  year.  They  are  now  found 
only  in  the  mountains  and  unsettled  regions.  Ranchmen  shoot 
them  because  they  steal  their  lambs  and  Indians  want  their  feathers 
for  adornment.  Really  they  do  but  little  harm,  living  mostly  on 
prairie  chickens,  prairie  dogs  and  smaller  mammals.  We  can 
spare  a  few  lambs  to  preserve  the  noblest  of  our  birds.  I  fear 
that  modern  methods  of  civilization  would  exterminate  all  forms 
of  life  except  what  can  be  eaten.  Think  of  a  world  of  chickens 
and  geese  and  beeves  and  hogs  and  men!  Why  not  save  a  few 
things  for  sentiment's  sake? 

HAWKS. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  hawks  that  may  as  well  be  killed  as 
not.  You  may  tell  them  by  the  fact  that  they  wear  mostly  blue 
feathers.  They  a^re  the  sharp-shinned  hawk,  called  the  little 
blue  darter,  and  ten  inches  in  length,  Cooper's  hawk  or  big 
blue  darter  sixteen  inches  in  length,  and  the  goshawk  or  blue  hen 
hawk,  twenty-two  inches  long.  Add  two  inches  to  each  of  the 
above  and  you  will  get  the  length  of  the  females. 

This  trio  of  villains  are  pirates  of  the  high  winds.  The 
domestic  chickens  that  they  eat  are  of  little  consequence  in  com- 
parison with  the  large  n.umber  of  useful  song  and  game  birds 
whose  hearts  are  actually  pierced  by  their  vicious  claws  and 
whose  throats  are  cut  by  their  murderous  beaks.  Swift  of  wing 
so  that  ducks  going  at  one  hundred  miles  an  hour  can  be  over- 
taken and  the  most  artful  of  dodgers,  a  trick  learned  from  chas- 
ing smaller  birds,  there  is  little  chance  of  escape  for  bird  or  beast 
that  starts  on  the  race  for  life. 

Such  birds  never  sing,  they  give  yells  as  piercing  as  their 
claws.  Like  many  little  boys  ' '  they  should  be  seen  but  not  heard, ' ' 
and  they  should  be  seen  only  long  enough  to  permit  a  gun  to  be 


130  BIRDS  OP  THE  WEST 

properly  pointed.  They  are  birds  of  beauty,  grace  and  dignity, 
qualities  which  are  worthy  of  a  better  character,  but  their  pretty 
plumage  could  be  put  to  no  better  use  than  to  furnish  wings  to 
arrows  that  may  quiver  in  their  hearts,  and  it  would  be  no  more 
than  justice  that  the  same  plumage  that  warms  their  nests  should 
drink  the  last  life  drop  of  their  bleeding  breasts. 


Owls. 


Order,  Itaptores. 
Family,  Bubonidae. 


Family  Characteristics:  Large  birds  of  prey  with  curved  beak 
and  sharp,  curved  talons.  Large  faces  with  firmly  set  eyes.  If  you 
walk  around  them  they  must  turn  their  heads  in  order  to  see  you. 
Usually  dull  brown  in  color  much  mottled  and  their  legs  are  generally 
feathered.  They  live  largely  on  rats  and  mice,  grasshoppers  and 
snakes  and  are  therefore  of  great  value.  The  small  amount  of  do- 
mestic fowl  that  they  eat  is  hardly  worth  notice. 

376.  SNOWY  OWL.  Nyctea  nyctea.  Two  feet  long.  Mostly  snow 
white.  Often  mottled  with  drab.  Very  yellow  eyes.  Feathered  socks. 

378.  BURROWING  OWL.  Speotyto  cuniculario  hypogaea.  Most- 
ly brown  above.  More  or  less  white  beneath.  No  horns.  Does  not 
wear  socks.  You  can  tell  him  by  his  size  and  the  place  where  you 
find  him. 

375a.  WESTERN  HORNED  OWL.  Bubo  Virginianus  pallescens. 
Twenty-two  inches  long.  Named  from  the  upright  feathers  that  pro- 
ject above  the  ears  like  horns.  A  genuine  night  owl.  Mottled  brown 
above.  Buffy  white  below.  This  is  the  owl  that  when  the  old  maid 
prayed  for  a  husband  asked  "Who?  Who?"  to  which  the  maid  is  said 
to  have  replied.  "Anybody  good  Lord".  Both  a  bad  and  a  good  bird. 

373.  SCREECH  OWL.  Megascops  asio.  Nine  inches  long.  Small 
feathers  projecting  upward  from  the  sides  of  the  head  suggesting  horns. 
Dull-brown  plumage.  Screech  dismally  at  night.  A  very  valuable  aid 
to  the  farmer. 

368.  BARRED  OWL.  Syrnium  nebulosum.  Twenty  inches  long. 
Upper  half  of  the  bird  barred  with  dark  brown  or  whitish.  Tail  and 
wings  banded.  Dark  brown  above.  Streaked  white  below. 

367.  SHORT-EARED  OWL.  Asio  Accipitrinus.  Fifteen  inches 
long.  A  real  prairie  owl  with  short  horns  and  yellow  eyes.  White 
eye-brows  and  black  ring  about  the  eyes.  Dark  yellowish-brown  above. 
Buffy  white  below.  Irregularly  barred  all  over. 


132  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

SNOWY  OWL. 

Many  men  stuff  birds  but  none  of  them  becomes  a  taxidermist 
until  he  has  put  up  a  snowy  owl.  Most  of  these  birds  that  are 
in  our  latitude  are  either  in  museums  or  private  collections  or 
are  soon  to  go  there. 

They  make  swell  targets.  They  have  two  large  owl's  eyes 
that  are  better  than  bull's  eyes  and  outer  rings  around  them  too. 
They  are  not  fit  for  food  unless  it  be  for  other  owls,  but  for  all 
that  they  are  just  as  good  for  targets.  Why,  I  can  think  of  noth- 
ing that  interferes  with  their  target-value.  I  wish  that  some- 
body could.  How  would  it  be  to  enact  a  law  that  whoever  shoots 
one  shall  eat  it? 

They  probably  will  not  become  extinct  for  some  time  for  no 
Arctic, explorer  has  been  far  enough  north  as  yet  to  get  beyond 
their  range.  What  specters  they  must  be  in  the  Arctic  nights  to 
the  smaller  inhabitants  of  the  icy  plains ! 

As  these  owls  depend  for  their  food  wholly  upon  what  they 
kill,  they  have  become  expert  hunters.  They  can  catch  a  duck 
on  the  wing  or  a  hare  on  the  foot  and  many  a  fish  loses  his  life 
by  venturing  too  near  the  little  island  of  sea-weeds  upon  which  a 
snowy  owl  is  sitting  and  singing  "I'm  waiting  and  watching  for 
thee." 

I  have  a  friend  who  started  on  a  short  trip  with  a  cage  con- 
taining two  owls,  one  a  snowy  owl  and  the  other  as  near  as  I 
could  judge  from  his  description  a  long  eared  owl.  When  he 
arrived  at  his  destination,  he  called  a  friend  to  see  his  owls.  The 
snowy  owl  was  apparently  all  that  the  cage  contained.  Doubtless 
if  they  could  have  seen  what  the  snowy  owl  contained  they  would 
have  ceased  to  wonder. 

Just  west  of  the  Missouri  river  in  the  least  settled  regions 
he  is  a  common  visitor  wearing  his  frostiest  suit  and  feeding  upon 
the  multitudes  of  sparrow-like  birds  that  throng  the  open  plains, 
but  as  that  region  becomes  more  thickly  settled,  he  will  be  driven 
to  the  north  or  go  to  join  the  dodo  and  the  auk  and  be  gathered 
to  his  feathered  fathers  and  his  patron  saint,  Minerva.  Alas! 
Wisdom  is  so  rare! 


BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST  133 

BURROWING  OWL. 

This  smallest  of  the  owls  is  about  the  size  of  the  robin  but 
being  an  owl,  he  is  top-heavy  and  sits  up  like  a  judge.  He  really 
takes  himself  seriously.  Whenever  I  look  one  of  them  in  the  eye, 
I  feel  like  laughing  at  his  apparent  dignity. 

He  lives  by  the  chase  otherwise  his  eyes  would  not  be  in  the 
front  of  his  head  like  a  hen's.  If  sheep  were  in  the  habit  of 
chasing  wolves,  their  eyes  would  be  in  front  and  wolves  would 
wear  their  eyes  on  the  side.  Man  with  his  eyes  in  front  has  ever 
been  on  the  watch  for  something  to  prey  upon.  That's  just  as 
sure  as  it  is  that  a  bird  with  a  hooked  beak  like  our  little  owl, 
loves  meat.  I  don't  know  whether  this  is  also  true  of  man  or  not. 

An  owl  cannot  make  goo-goo  eyes  for  the  reason  that  he  can- 
not turn  his  eyes  sideways.  Did  you  ever  try  to  walk  around 
one  ?  If  you  noticed  it  you  would  recall  that  he  had  to  turn  his 
whole  head  around  to  follow  you.  Did  it  not  seem  to  you  that 
his  head  was  on  a  pivot  and  could  turn  around  and  around  and 
around?  Try  the  next  one  you  see  and  see  if  you  can't  get  him 
to  wring  his  neck  off. 

This  little  owl  you  will  often  see  where  there  is  a  prairie- 
dog  town  and  there  are  many  people  who  will  tell  you  that  there 
can  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  its  hole  a  happy  family  of  rattle- 
snakes, prairie-dogs  and  owls.  No  doubt  the  three  are  at  times 
in  the  same  hole  but  at  such  times  the  prairie-dog  is  inside  the  owl 
and  the  owl  inside  the  rattlesnake. 

You  may  be  tempted  to  inquire  why  this  little  owl  chooses 
to  make  its  home  in  the  deserted  burrow  of  the  prairie-dog  but 
you  must  remember  that  he  lays  many  white  eggs  and  hatches 
out  many  hungry  little  owls,  so  you  should  not  blame  him  for 
getting  a  home  with  as  little  labor  as  possible,  and  placing  it  in 
the  heart  of  the  city  whose  inhabitants  when  young  are  such  fine 
food.  And  how  interesting  is  this  little  fowl  with  his  brood  of 
owlets  sunning  themselves  at  the  mouth  of  their  burrow!  You 
may  be  sure  that  it  keeps  the  prairie-dogs  as  busy  as  guinea  pigs 
to  raise  enough  little  pups  to  feed  them.  Don't  shoot  this  little 
bunch  of  feathers  on  stilts.  He  eats  rats,  mice,  gophers,  and 
never  anything  that  you  would  eat  anyway. 

Except  as  to  his  diet  the  owl  is  always  overrated.     He  is 


134  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

never  as  big  as  he  looks  for  he  is  mostly  fuss  and  feathers  and 
I  fear  that  he  is  rather  tough.  At  least  I  have  heard  that  charge 
made  against  the  boiled  owl.  He  doesn't  know  very  much  in  spite 
of  his  reputed  wisdom.  He  just  looks  wise,  and  has  his  counter- 
part in  the  big-headed,  goggle-eyed,  long  haired  variety  of  sages 
that  like  the  moping  owl  of  Gray  complain  mostly  to  the  moon. 


Non-Game  Birds. 


Arranged  by  colors  to  assist  in  identification. 


Black.  American  Eaven,  Common  Crow,  Bronzed  Grackle, 
Purple  Grackle,  Cowbird,  Rusty  Blackbird,  Brewer's  Blackbird, 
Purple  Martin. 

Black-white.  Lark  Bunting,  Bobolink,  Hairy  Woodpecker, 
Downy  Woodpecker,  Snowflake,  Rose-breasted  Grosbeak  in  flight, 
Blackpoll  Warbler,  Black-and-white  Creeping  Warbler,  Magpie, 
Red-headed  Woodpecker. 

Black-red.  Scarlet  Tanager,  Red-winged  Blackbird,  Red- 
headed Woodpecker,  Chewink,  Rose-breasted  Grosbeak,  Orchard 
Oriole. 

Black-yellow.  Yellow-headed  Blackbird,  Goldfinch,  Evening 
Grosbeak,  Northern  Yellowthroat. 

Black-orange.    Baltimore  Oriole,  Redstart. 

Blue.    Indigo  Bird,  Blue  Jay,  Bluebird,  Kingfisher. 

Blue-gray.    Mourning  Dove. 

Brown.    Brown  Thrasher,  Fox  Sparrow. 

Brown-olive.  Wood  Thrush,  Hermit  Thrush,  Wilson's 
Thrush,  Olive-backed  Thrush. 

Brown-gray.  House  Wren,  Winter  Wren,  Marsh  Wren, 
Whippoorwill,  Cedar  Waxwing. 

Gray.     Cat-bird,  Chimney  Swift,  Junco,  Night-hawk. 

Gray-black.  Chickadee,  Northern  Shrike,  Loggerhead  Shrike. 

Gray  with  whitish  breast.  Kingbird,  Phoebe,  Wood  Pewee, 
Olive-sided  Flycatcher,  Least  Flycatcher,  Canada  Jay,  Mocking- 
bird^ Tufted  Titmouse,  Bank  Swallow,  Black-billed  Cuckoo, 
Yellow-billed  Cuckoo,  White-breasted  Nuthatch,  Lapland  Long- 
spur. 

Olive  with  light  olive  breast.  Golden-crowned  Kinglet,  Ruby- 
crowned  Kinglet,  Red-eyed  Vireo,  Philadelphia  Vireo,  Warbling 
Vireo,  Prairie  Warbler,  Arkansas  Kingbird. 


136  BIRDS  OF  THE  WEST 

Red-headed.  Red-headed  Woodpecker,  Northern  Flicker, 
Red-shafted  Flicker,  Downy  Woodpecker,  Hairy  Woodpecker, 
Ruby-crowned  Kinglet. 

Red  or  reddish.  Cardinal  Grosbeak,  Red  Crossbill,  Redpoll, 
Purple  Finch,  Orchard  Oriole,  Robin  Redbreast. 

Red- white-black.  Rose-breasted  Grosbeak,  Red-headed  Wood- 
pecker. 

Slate.    Junco. 

Slate-yellow-white.  Myrtle  Warbler,  Parula  Warbler,  Black- 
throated  Blue  Warbler. 

Sparrow-like.  Chipping  Sparrow,  English  Sparrow,  Field 
Sparrow,  Grasshopper  Sparrow,  Song  Sparrow,  Tree  Sparrow, 
White-crowned  Sparrow,  White-throated  Sparrow,  Lapland  Long- 
spur. 

Yellow.  Yellow  Warbler.  Nearly  all  warblers  have  some 
yellow. 

Yellow-breasted.  Meadow-lark,  Prairie  Horned  Lark,  Dick- 
cissel,  Yellow-breasted  Chat,  Blackburnian  Warbler,  Arkansas 
Kingbird. 


INDEX 


A 

Avocet,  American  120 

B 

Baldpate    106 

Bee-bird,  same  as  King-bird  37 

Bittern,   American   Ill 

—Least   Ill 

Blackbird,   Brewer   48 

— Redwing    48 

— Rusty  48 

—Yellow-headed  48 

Bluebill   106 

Bluebird 93 

Bobolink    49 

Bob-white 122 

Brant,  see  Goose 107 

Bufflehead   '. 106 

Bunting,   Indigo 58 

—Lark    58 

Butcher-bird,  see  Shrike 75 

Butterball,  see  Bufflehead .:. 106 

Buzzard,    see    Vulture 126 

q 

Camp-robber,  see  Canada  Jay 43 

Canary,  Wild  see  Yellow  Warbler 78 

Canvasback   106 

Catbird    84 

Chebec,  see  Least  Flycatcher 37 

Chewink    58 

Chickadee    89 

Coot,  American 11 5 

Cowbird  48 

Crane,  Blue  see  Great  Blue  Heron  Ill 

— Whooping    113 

—Sandhill     113 

Crow,  American  43 

Crossbill,  American  58 


138  INDEX 


Cuckoo,   Black-billed   2  4 

— Yellow-billed    24 

Curlew  117 

D 

Dickcissel    '. 58 

Dove,   Mourning  124 

— Turtle,  see  Mourning  Dove  124 

Duck,  Baldpate 106 

— Bluebill 106 

— Blue-winged  Teal  105 

— Bufflehead   106 

— Canvasback 106 

— Cinnamon  Teal  .' 105 

— Gadwall  106 

— Golden-eye 107 

— Mallard    105 

— Pintail  106 

— Redhead    .• 106 

— Ruddy   107 

— Scaup,  see  Bluebill  106 

— Spoonbill  105 

—Widgeon    106 

— Wood  106 

E 

Eagle,  Bald  128 

— Golden  128 

F 

Fish  Duck,  see  Mergansers  107 

Flicker,  Northern  28 

— Red-shafted  28 

Flycatcher,  Crested 3  7 

— Least  37 

—Olive-sided 37 

Fly-up-the-creek,  see  American  Bittern  Ill 

G 

Gadwall  106 

Goatsucker,  see  Nighthawk  32 

Golden-eye    107 

Goldfinch  58 

Goose,   Canada 107 

— Snow    107 

Grackle,  Bronzed  48 


INDEX  139 


— Purple    .  49 

Grebe,  Eared  98 

— Holboell's  see  Red-necked  Grebe  98 

— Red-necked    98 

—Pied-billed  98 

Grosbeak,    Cardinal    59 

— Evening  58 

— Pine  59 

— Rose-reasted    58 

Grouse,  Sharp-tailed  122 

Gull,  Bonaparte's  , 101 

— Franklin's 101 

H 

Hair-bird,  see  Chipping  Sparrow 56 

Hawk,  American  Goshawk  127 

— Cooper's  127 

— Marsh    i .....127 

— Red-shouldered  127 

—Red-tailed   127 

— Rough-legged 128 

— Sharp-shinned  127 

— Sparrow  127 

— Swainson's    128 

Herom,  Black-crowned  Night .• Ill 

—Great  Blue  1 Ill 

—Little  Green   Ill 

High-hole,  see  Flicker  28 

High-holder,  see  Flicker  .:.. 28 

Hummingbird,  Ruby-throated  36 

J 

Jack-snipe   117 

Jay,  Blue  43 

— Canada    43 

Junco .• * 57 

K 

Killdeer  121 

Kingbird,  Arkansas 37 

—Bee-bird    37 

Kingfisher,   Belted   26 

Kinglet,  Golden-crowned  91 

— Ruby-crowned  91 

Kite,  Swallow-tailed  ..  ...128 


140  IJNDEX 


Lark,    Meadow    49 

— Prairie  Horned  41 

Longspur,  Lapland  57 

Loon    100 

M 

Magpie  43 

Mallard    105 

Martin,   Purple 69 

Meadow  Lark  49 

Merganser,  American  107 

—Hooded    107 

— Red-breasted  107 

Mocking-bird  84 

Moose-bird,  see  Canada  Jay 43 

Mud-hen,  see  Coot  and  Grebe 115,  98 

N 

Nighthawk  : 32 

Nuthatch,  Red-breasted 89 

—White-breasted 89 

o 

Oriole,  Baltimore  49 

— Orchard    49 

Ovenbird 79 

Owl,  Barred 131 

— Burrowing  131 

—Screech 131 

— Short-eared   131 

— Snowy '. 131 

—Western    Horned    131 

P 

Pelican,   White 103 

Pewee,   Wood    37 

Phalarope,  Wilson's  116 

Phoebe 37 

Pigeon,   Passenger   124 

Pintail     106 

Plover,   Golden  121 

— Upland,  see  Bartramian  Sandpiper  117 

Prairie  Chicken 122 

Purple   Finch   .  57 


INDEX  141 


Q 

Quail  see  Bob-white  122 

E, 

Rail,  Carolina 115 

—Virginia  115 

Raincrow,  see  Cuckoo  24 

Raven,    Northern    43 

Redhead    106 

Redpoll    58 

Redstart    78 

Reed  Bird,  see  Bobolink 49 

Ricebird,  see  Bobolink  49 

Robin  93 

3 

Sage-hen    : 122 

Sandpiper,    Bartramian „ 117 

—Least   117 

—Spotted -• 118 

Sapsucker    28 

Sawbill 107 

Scaup,    see    Bluebill    106 

Shrike,   Northern 75 

— Loggerhead   75 

Snipe,    Jack    117 

—Wilson's    117 

Snowflake 57 

Sparrow,  Chipping  56 

— English    56 

—Field    56 

—Fox 56 

— Grasshopper 57 

— Song  r>fi 

— Tree    57 

—Vesper 57 

—White-crowned    57 

—White-throated   %. 57 

Spoonbill   105 

Stake-driver,  see  American  Bittern  Ill 

Swallow,    Bank 69 

— Barn    69 

— Chimney,  see   Swift  69 

— Cliff,  see  Eaves  69 

— Eaves    69 

— Tree  ...  -   69 


142  INDEX 


Swan,  Trumpeter  107 

— Whistling    107 

Swift,  Chimney  34 

T 

Teal,    Blue-winged   105 

— Cinnamon 105 

— Green-winged    105 

Tern,    Black    101 

— Forster 101 

Thistlebird,  see  Goldfinch  58 

Thrasher,   Brown   84 

Thrush,   Golden-crowned   93 

—Hermit  93 

— Olive-backed    93 

— Wilson's    93 

—Wood    93 

Thunderpump,  see  American  Bittern Ill 

Tip-up,  see  Spotted  Sandpiper 118 

Titmouse,   Tufted 89 

Towhee,  See  Chewink  58 

V 

Veery,  see  Wilson's  Thrush  93 

Vireo,   Philadelphia   77 

— Red-eyed   77 

— Warbling  77 

— White-eyed    77 

Vulture    126 

W 

Warbler,   Blackburnian   78 

<  — Blackpoll    79 

— Black-throated    Blue    78 

— Black-and-white  Creeping 79 

—Myrtle     78 

— Parula   79 

— Prairie  79 

— Yellow  78 

Waxwing,  Cedar  73 

Whippoorwill    32 

Widgeon    106 

Woodcock    117 

Wood  Duck  106 

Woodpecker,  Downy 28 

— Golden-winged,  see  Flicker  28 


INDEX  143 


— Hairy  28 

— Red-headed   28 

Wren,  House  87 

—Marsh    87 

— Winter  ..  .87 


Yarup,  see  Flicker  28 

Yellowlegs,  Greater  117 

— Lesser    117 

Yello-wthroat,  Northern  78 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

MM 

frmwz 

HAY 

"HI       fl  ig  n+ 

m  R   1963 

JUN     5  1964 

•      Je4'646B 

APTS^8  1977 

*  ^^^  "     •'*••"* 

RY 

LOAMS. 

^ 

LD  21-50m-6  '60                            T   .^en.era^fii>Ii^5r     . 
/•RiQoi<5in\/«'7«                          University  of  California 

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